Last Chance, Miss Potter
by Kyle Senior
Summary: Reptilia28's Grim Reaper Challenge. Rose Potter finds herself in Death's office after sixteen unexpected deaths. Lets get her destiny back on track. Femharry, Fem!Harry, femslash, fem!slash, Fem!HP/HG/LL/GW, soul!bond, soulbond, time travel, Molly/Ron/Dumbledore bashing
1. - Death's Fate and Consulting Co

**I've been wanting to take a go at at Reptilia28's Grim Reaper challenge for a while now but couldn't think of anything that hadn't be done before until I decided to go the fem!harry route. No one else has tried it so I like to delude myself that I'm somewhat original.**

**This is going to be femslash with a HP/HG/LL/GW pairing. I probably could have done a straight ship but I really don't know how to write a heterosexual relationship from a female POV. I think I can write lesbians though. And they are pretty hot.**

**I will try to avoid lemons. I don't think I'll be graphic and I doubt anything I write will go past second base. The rating will probably go up to M at some point**

* * *

**Last Chance, Miss Potter**

**Chapter One:**

**Death's Life and Fate Consulting Co.**

Rose Potter, the Girl-Who-Lived, groaned. Without opening her eyes she placed her head in her hands and tried to massage her head, hoping to get rid of the splitting headache she currently had while she tried to draw out the memories of what just happened. Satisfied for the moment it wouldn't get any worse but still memory-less, she opened her eyes and looked around.

The emerald eyed girl with long messy straight black hair was sitting in what vaguely looked like an airport terminal filled with humanoid grey blobs, like an image out of focus. Making sure she had her glasses on (she did have them on); Rose looked at one of the grey blobs again only to find it was still an out of focus grey blob. Sighing, she got up and took another look around before spotting half a dozen people spaced at roughly equal intervals and seated at desks up and down the 'terminal'.

"Probably should just ask," mumbled out rose before wandering off towards the nearest in focus person she could find; a rather attractive woman who looked to be in her late teens with pure white hair and fair skin. She was typing on a computer while chatting away on a hands free earpiece

"Um," said Rose ever so intelligently. "Can you help me?"

The woman abruptly stopped talking and looked up, gazing at Rose, she then stared at her for some time, something which Rose bizarrely had trouble quantifying in this strange place.

"You have to wait your turn," she replied eventually. "You'll be called up eventually. Now go and sit down, I have enough paperwork as it is to do because of that idiot girl's handiwork."

Perplexed, Rose turned away and silently headed to the nearest vacant seat. What next past felt like an eternity – or was it only a few seconds? She wasn't sure, nor was she sure how long it took to regain her memories. Rose began to remember what happened; she had just seen Snape's memories telling her that she had been a Horcrux so she had ventured into the forest to meet her fate. She had used the Resurrection Stone she had found in her first snitch to bring back the ghost like forms of her mother, father, godfather and honorary uncle, before eventually dying herself in a flash of killing curse green light.

Eventually the woman she had approached called out her name.

"Potter, Rose!"

Reminded vaguely of her sorting she got up and headed towards the desk.

"Oh, it's you," she said. "Again I see?"

"Uh, pardon?"

"Ugh, whatever," she replied waving her hand. "Just go through."

Confused, Rose walked towards a door she could have sworn wasn't there before to find herself in a well-furnished room where what appeared to be a young girl of around eight or nine years of age with pale skin, sharp features and pitch black neatly cut hair was seated behind a large mahogany desk. Without even moving and despite her small stature she radiated confidence, fear and power and it took most of Rose's will power to move forward and take a seat in the chair opposite.

"Well, Potter," she said in the most cold a menacing tone a small girl could muster – something that was surprisingly scary. "What do you have to say for yourself?"

"Sorry?"

"What – do – you – have – to – say – for – your – self?" she replied, punching out every word.

"What?" sputtered Rose again.

"Same thing every time," replied the rather scary girl. "Can never give me a good answer… Well, let's put it this way; I am your Grim Reaper, Angel of Death – Morta Nephthys, and this is the sixteenth time you've been here."

"I'm dead? How can I have been dead sixteen times?" sputtered Rose as her eyes boggled.

"New record I think for you, fastest time I think you've had on the uptake, and no, you're not dead, think… Limbo." replied the Reaper before raising a hand to cut Rose off. "Oh, and yes, you had your memory wiped every time. You always ask why you can't remember about now."

"So why do you keep sending me back?"

"Because you have a destiny," replied Morta mysteriously. "Most people don't get second, or third or sixteenth chances. You on the other hand – as I said – have a destiny, and if you fail to complete it we patch up the little mistake that landed you _here_ and send you back. Usually if you have a destiny you complete it in a few goes – but you young lady really like being difficult, don't you? So, are you trying to get me the sack?" she finished menacingly.

"Why do you keep asking things like that?" asked Rose. "You know I don't remember."

"True," she said very abruptly. "You don't remember, but I do, and telling you off is very therapeutic you know. This is a rather stressful job and I need my downtime. Letting my anger go is a part of that."

"Uh, huh," replied Rose.

"So as I said, you died _sixteen_ damn times and we can only send you back sixteen times for a total of seventeen lives," She explained coldly. "If you mess it up again I lose my job and will be delegated to cleaning duty on the seventh level of Hell! Spending eternity cleaning up blood and internal organs is not pleasant."

"That doesn't sound pleasant," said Rose, taking her many deaths well.

"Thankfully as it's your last chance we can skip a few of the normal rules and do a few special things which we shall cover later."

"Ok," said Rose simply. "So what is my Destiny? I assume it involves removing a megalomaniac from the world?"

"That's part of the main goal, but you need to do a lot to achieve that and I can't say you actually got very far along that path," she answered before looking curiously at Rose.

"How badly did I fuck up?" asked Rose with dread.

"Pretty badly," replied the Reaper.

Rose swore under her breath as she pinched the bridge of her nose.

"So what did I manage to achieve?" she asked.

"How about I just tell you what you needed to do and you use that underused brain of yours to come to your own conclusions, alright?"

Rose nodded.

"Good," she said cheerily. "Let's see; your overall goal is to drag the magical world kicking and screaming into the Twentieth Century and then eventually the Twenty-First Century, all while living to a ripe old age of a hundred and something with plenty of children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, etcetera. Got that?"

"Sounds like a good idea though I must admit I never thought ahead beyond offing old Tommy boy," replied Rose trying to force her humour back into the conversation despite the fact she was 'half-way' dead.

"Well, to do so you need to find your three soulmates –"

"Three?" exclaimed Rose.

"Yes three, uhh…" said Morta before she started to shuffle through the folders that littered her desk that Rose hadn't seen before. "Moon Lovegood? No, that's not right… Ah yes – here; Luna Lovegood, Weasley, and some Granger girl…"

"Luna? Hermione? What, Ron's going to have a harem?" said Rose with a laugh. "That can't be right; I can't see myself sharing him."

"Ron?" asked the Reaper curiously.

"Ron Weasley, my fiancé?" she replied before suddenly stopping and frowning with a crease in her brow.

"Ah, I see you picked up on it."

"That doesn't feel right," replied Rose with a touch of sadness. "No _warm feeling_ when I think of him."

"That might have something to do with your soul not currently residing in a physical body pumped full of Amortentia."

"WHAT?" shouted Rose.

"Amortentia? Love potion? You know?" she said with distain.

"I know what Amortentia is," replied Rose through gritted teeth. "Are you saying Ron has been dosing me with it?" she asked with barely controlled rage.

"Yes, yes he did."

"That bastard! If I ever get my hands on him I'll rip of his bits and feed them to a dog! I can't believe I slept with that bastard!" said Rose before suddenly stopping mid rant, eyes wide. "That bastard pretty much raped me," she whispered sinking her head into her hands.

"Yep," was all the Reaper replied with.

"So which Weasley was it?" asked Rose cautiously.

"Uhh," she said again, shuffling to find the folder. "The youngest one… Ginevra Weasley."

"Um," said Rose awkwardly.

"Don't think you swing that way?"

"Not really, no. I thought I would have noticed by the time I was seventeen."

"You figured it out when you were twelve," said the Reaper to a confused Rose before more thoroughly explaining. "You asked Hermione out after she was unpetrified but Old White-Whiskers didn't approve so a few Obliviations and a Compulsion Charm later plus a monthly does of Apathy Potion saw you two apart, but I digress; back to your destiny."

"B-but," said a shocked Rose.

"Later, later," said the Reaper, waving her off. "So; find your soul mates and complete your bonds, destroy Tom Riddle's Horcruxes, kill Tom, and rebuild the government from the ground up in a fair and democratic fashion, live to a ripe old age and have plenty of children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren. Clear?"

"I'm not sure how you understand it but there seems to be a required bit missing for the children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren goal," said Rose. "I thought there was a – I dunno – a _male _requirement there."

"Huh?" asked Morta. "Don't you live in a world of magic? There is a potion and ritual for that!"

"Oh"

"Yes; _oh_. Do try to use your head," she replied with a roll of her eyes. "Now, let's take a look at how badly your life has been manipulated for Old White-Whisker's _Greater Good_."

"Wait, DUMBLEDORE is the one who obliviated us?" exclaimed Rose.

"Of course! Didn't I just tell you to use that head of yours? How many people do you know have a white beard?"

"Can you please stop patronising me? You're clearly enjoying it a bit too much."

"Whatever," responded the Reaper with a dismissive wave of her hand. "Now let's see where you went wrong with that; starting with the soul mates you were ever so eager to hear about."

Rose did her best to hide her blush at her newfound eagerness with the situation.

"Let's see," said Morta distractedly, flicking through a manila folder. "Second year; as I said, hooked up with Granger – obliviated of the fact, both of you started getting dosed with apathy potion to keep you apart, Granger also had compulsion charms embedded in her subconscious by Dumbledore working on her fears of how poorly she would be received in the wizarding world if her sexuality came to light."

"Why did he do this?" asked Rose seething.

"Well, despite Whiskers being about as straight as your shoelaces himself he was rather against you being with a woman. More correctly it was most likely he was against you being with anyone except that garbage disposal bastard Ronald," she explained. "But let's hold off the motives for later; there is a bit more to discuss."

"He did it more than once?"

"Yep," answered the Reaper. "Third year; decided you liked the fairer sex again, hooked up with Granger again – Dumbledore obliviated both of you and upped the apathy potion dosage, causing your fallout with Ms Granger over that silly broomstick; he scaled back the dosage a little bit after that. Fourth year; while Ronald was off on his little jealous spat you discovered yourself again and hooked up with Granger – the usual was done and Ronald was told to keep you two from getting too close. Fifth year; met Lovegood in the DA, hooked up – obliviated, dosed, the usual. Sixth year – this is where it got interesting – you got interested in Ginevra Weasley, got over the 'she's Ron's sister' issue and started secretly dating. Because Dumbledore was out of the castle so much he missed this and your relationship managed to go on for several weeks before a soul bond started to develop, at that point he did the unspeakable and broke it despite the fact he might have killed both of you doing so and resumed the usual obliviations and potions. Fearing it would get out of hand he started dosing all the girls in the year below you, your year and the year above you to keep you from getting into any more _'unnatural'_ relationships and arranged for you to start getting amortentia keyed to Ronald Weasley."

Rose's face was contorted in repressed rage at this point.

"Might as well let it go, it's not like you can damage my office," suggested the Reaper.

Rose proceeded to rant for several minutes while kicking furniture around the room, doing her best to demolish everything before finally stopping and sitting down again – eyes wet and red faced.

"I'm going to wring that bastards neck if I ever get the chance," snarled Rose with conviction.

"You might just get to," she replied. "A few more tidbits; after you and Ginevra were split, she and Lovegood ended up together after several years of an on again, off again relationship. Ronald found out and reported it to his mother, she promptly demanded that as part of their 'arrangement' that the old bastard keep them apart so Ginevra would end up in a 'proper' relationship. 'Proper' I believe meant as a housewife waiting dutifully at home for the husband to come home and pumping out babies like herself."

"Mrs Weasley was a part of this?" shouted Rose.

"Of course she was!" exclaimed the Reaper. "Who else do you think made the potions? Snape might have been a bastard but he would have done his best to find out _why _Dumbledore wanted them. He would have found out and would not have approved. Molly Weasley could have been a very talented potions mistress right now if she'd put the work into in; she chose to play the part of a housewife instead."

"Anyone else?" asked Rose, fearful of the answer.

"Thankfully not," Morta replied as Rose let out a sigh of relief. "Just Dumbledore, Molly and Ronald."

"Was Ron really ever my friend?"

"No, he wasn't."

"Why? Why would any of them do this?" asked Rose desperately, hoping there might have been some justification for this.

"Several reasons," she replied, shifting through more notes. "Let's see; Dumbledore wants control of your political power – you actually have a lot of sway with the public and could use it if you knew how, you also control both the Potter and Black seat on the Wizengamot…"

"I have seats on the Wizengamot?" shouted Rose. "Why didn't anyone tell me?"

"Dumbledore didn't want it going to your head, seems he feared you'd become vain or dark or something from power lust. He wasn't going to tell you until he could control you properly; by making you the subservient wife of someone easily controlled. He also didn't want you to defeat Tom Riddle in a 'dark' manner – fearing you've become the next dark lady, he firmly believed that the 'power he knows not' would manifest and vanquish Tom without any training on your part," answered the Reaper.

"That doesn't make sense, why didn't I?" asked Rose. "It was obvious I lacked the skills needed to kill the bastard, why didn't I ask?"

"You did once Dumbledore told you the prophecy, but Whiskers went to his usual fall-back of obliviating you and throwing on a few compulsion charms to stop you asking again," she answered. "Not that it stopped you – seems you're rather resistant to mind magics – you asked him on no less than three separate occasions for more combat orientated training instead of Riddle's history that could be summed up in a few hours."

"Molly had delusions that you having a husband and being part of a large family was best for you – somehow – and she really wanted lots of grandkids. She is rather delusional; her whole life revolves around being a housewife and taking care of lots of children and grandchildren. I would say she see little other purpose in her life."

"How is being dose up on love potions good for me?"

"Don't ask me to explain it, she's delusional!" the Reaper shot back. "Delusional people don't make rational or logical decisions."

"Ugh," said Rose, sinking her head into her hands again. "Why did Ron do it?"

"Money, pure and simple, you're actually very wealthy; another thing that was omitted from you," she explained. "Ronald had visions of purchasing the Chudley Cannons with your money and playing as keeper – not that him being on the team would improve the odds of them actually winning a game. Later – when he reached that age – I imagine Dumbledore and Molly sold the plan to Ron by telling him how he would be marrying and bedding one of the hottest girls in school."

"You better be sending me back soon so I can rip that bastard limb for limb," demanded Rose.

"Yes, yes, we will be, but we still have things to discuss," she said with her usual distracted wave. "Now we've covered the manipulations towards you, interested in how you died?"

"It's a bit morbid but I think it would be useful to know how I did so I can avoid going that way in the future," explained Rose.

"I'd prefer it if you didn't go at all, not until you're a hundred plus at least."

"That too," she said.

"So, let's see, shall we?" asked the Reaper. "Before you got to Hogwarts you were beaten to death twice by your uncle; once your uncle threw you into your cupboard a bit too roughly and you cracked you skull on the door frame – you died of a brain haemorrhage about twenty minutes later, the other time you were severely beaten getting a burst intestine resulting in blood poisoning – that combined with severe dehydration cause you death several days later."

"That's not hard to imagine," said Rose. "How did you make me survive that?"

"Usually we roll back the clock a few minutes and make a minute change that changed a large outcome," explained Morta. "For example we changed the angle your uncle threw you very slightly that stopped you from cracking your head on the door frame."

"Oh."

"Moving on," continued Morta. "In your first year; you were clubbed by that troll in the Hogwarts bathrooms and hit by a killing curse from Quirrel/Riddle as you foolishly tried to run away with the stone."

"I can see that, strangely enough."

"Yes, continuing," she said. "Second year; beaten to death again by your uncle after Dobby the house elf ruined his dinner party, killed by Ronald Weasley when he used you as bait to escape from the Acromantula…"

"What?"

"Does it really surprise you?" asked Morta with a solitary raise of her eyebrow as she looked over the folder containing Rose's deaths. "He basically raped you – repeatedly, is this much further a step up?"

Rose shook her head and Morta continued.

"…Crushed to death as the ceiling in the Chamber of Secrets collapsed, and a broken neck after being slammed against the Chamber wall by the tail of a sixty foot Basilisk - congratulations, you killed yourself twice in the space of twenty minutes."

Rose just scowled at the Reaper as she continued.

"Third year; you only managed to die once and that was by having your soul sucked out protecting your godfather."

"Only once!" said Rose sarcastically. "What an achievement!"

"For you it really is," shot back Morta. "Fourth year; overdosed on apathy potion because Dumbldore upped the dosage after you and Hermione got together again after Ron had his Triwizard jealous spat. If Dumbledore knew anything about healing or potions he would have realised both of you were already near your maximum dosage but alas, his mastery is in Transfiguration. Congrats, you only died once again!"

Rose rolled her eyes and considered giving the Death the finger.

"Fifth year; pushed down a flight of steps by Ronald after he finds you and Luna Lovegood in a broom closet snogging, and you told him he'll never have you because you don't swing that way, killed the next day by an overdose of apathy potion – Dumbledore seemed to forget that he'd already dosed you once with the stuff that week keyed to Hermione, followed your godfather through the Veil of Death in the Department of Mysteries…"

"Only Moony grabbing me at the last second stopped me from following him."

"Yes, we tweaked it slightly so he would be facing the right way and grab you before you could follow your Godfather," explained Morta as Rose frowned and avoided her eyes.

"Sixth year; killed when Dumbledore tried to break the soulbond between yourself and Ginny Weasley."

"Bastard."

"Yes, quite," said Morta. "Seventh year; killed by Ronald Weasley after he accidently gave you a double dose of amortentia and finally – the death that landed you here today – struck by a killing curse fired by Tom Riddle. Of all the deaths, that is the only one that is truly on your head, what were you thinking? Or weren't you?"

"Uhh, horcrux?" said Rose, hoping that explained everything.

"Ha! Very funny joke," said Morta. "But seriously, why did you do that?"

"Because I was an accidental horcrux."

"Not very funny the second time around," said the Reaper, pondering. "Unless you're being serious…"

"I am."

"What the Hell were you thinking, Rose Lily Potter?" shrieked Morta. "Did you even open _Secrets of the Darkest Arts_? Or did you foolishly just leave it Granger to do that for you? If you had bother to read you would have seen what's involved in making one, getting hit by a rebounding killing curse isn't one of them, you don't 'accidently' make a horcrux."

"What about my connection to Voldemort? How else do you explain it?" asked Rose.

"Yes, there is a soul fragment in your scar," answered the Reaper, holding up her hand to halt any interruptions. "But that doesn't make your scar a horcrux. A horcrux involves many complicated enchantments on an object, an object which normally is incapable of holding a soul. You on the other hand are just a normal human, and the free bit of Riddle's soul saw your own body as a suitable place to survive. It's like a leech, probably consuming some of your magic."

"How did Dumbledore miss this?" asked Rose.

"He's too presumptuousness," replied Morta. "He finds there is a bit of a soul lodged in your forehead and automatically assumes it must be a horcrux without bothering to find out if there is something else it could be or bothering to look more closely at _what _a horcrux actually is and involves."

"How does this fit in with Dumbledore gaining political power, wouldn't he need me alive for that?" asked Rose.

"Glad to see you picked up on that," said Morta. "Dumbledore calculated that if you were a horcrux and with Riddle sharing your blood, then you would be protected from a killing curse cast by him as the horcrux would absorb the energy. This was supposedly further empowered by you being master of the Hallows. He also decided that if he was wrong then you're willing sacrifice would protect everyone from Voldemort, like your mothers own sacrifice to protect you, not realising it doesn't work like that, again."

"Doesn't work?" asked Rose.

"Yes, like the scar, Dumbledore arrogantly presumed things and didn't bother to look it up," explained Morta. "Think about it, all through history, mothers have shielded their children from harm. Why don't they survive more often? Why are you the only case in recent history? Quite frankly you need to take out steps before it happens. The magic involved is actually a ritual and the person who dies is actually a voluntary sacrifice for the ritual. Like most of magical Britain, Dumbledore considered ritual magic to be dark and thus refused to even consider the notion it was used for good."

"My mum knew this was coming?" Rose asked.

"No, but your safety was a layered defence," the Reaper explained. "That was the last line."

Rose frowned, thinking she would have preferred it not to be.

"I take it you know little of soul bonds?"

"Not much, other than it being some sort of bond between compatible people."

""Yes, well, what happens in a small part of your soul moves into the body of your bond mate," explained Morta as Rose had a look of horror on her face. "– No, it's nothing like splitting your soul through murder. That bit of soul replaces the bit you gave away. The spell Dumbledore used to split you and Ginny Weasley up separates the extra bit from your main soul portion, the donated bit then moves on – which is to say _dies_. What Dumbledore could have done is use that same spell to separate that bit of Riddle's soul from you."

"It was as simple as a single spell?"

"Well, it's not a simple spell, but it is a lot safer than taking an AK from one of the evilest wizards alive," she said sarcastically with a roll of her eyes. "Anyway, the bond gives you a few neat tricks. You'll be able to feel each other's emotions and talk to each other telepathically."

"How many times was I actually killed because of Voldemort?" asked Rose curiously.

"Four," said Morta, "Every other time was because of Dumbledore manipulations."

"So he's trying to protect me so I can defeat Voldemort but he ends up killing me many more times than Voldemort Himself, right," she said with distain. "I assume many people have their lives carefully crafted by Dumbledore in the name of the Greater Good?"

"Quite a few, nearly all of them revolving around you," said Morta before asking. "What do you know about prophecy? Is a prophet conscious when they spout prophecy?"

"No they're not; they go into a trance like state and aren't aware of anything around them – nor do they remember their own prophecies," said Rose, scrapping up the foggy memories from divination and her own experience with them.

"So how was it that she was aware that Snape was there that night? If the door to her room in the Hogs Head opened and he was standing there, how come he didn't hear the whole prophecy? For her to be aware of the disturbance she had to have finished saying telling it," almost shouted the Reaper. "Why didn't you pick that up?"

"Why are you implying?" asked Rose, eyes narrowing.

"That Dumbledore set it up for at least part of the prophecy to get back to Tom Riddle," she replied as Rose went back into a barely controlled rage. "Dumbledore said it himself – 'If Voldemort had never heard of the prophecy, would it have been fulfilled?' He set it up so it _would_ be fulfilled. He saw both you and the Longbottom boy as a means to an end; having initially heard the prophecy in his office during his first interview with Trelawney."

"He set up my parents to die and gave Neville's parents a fate worse than death?" asked Rose with a whisper, eyes watering.

"He did, and this is just the start, though admittedly that was probably the worst," she explained. "He did other things for example; Snape admitted he was a Deatheater to your mother, confessed he was the one who handed over the prophecy and after a rather drunken night of Firewhiskey and fist fighting, managed to be at peace with your father and godfather – though they were never friends. Of course no one who was a part of that remembers it – Dumbledore needed a grumpy and grouchy Snape for his role as spy so Slytherin students would happily confide in him and it helped for him to have a huge grudge against you so he wouldn't have any qualms about using legilimancy on you."

"Snape is a master Occlumens," stated Rose. "He would have notice obliviations."

"And Dumbldore is better," shot back Morta. "Dumbledore may be a transfiguration master, but his true mastery lies in mind magic. It's how he has so effectively controlled your life. It probably took Dumbledore weeks of work to carefully manipulate Snape's mind like that."

Rose sat uneasily at that.

"Moving on; Pettigrew was a very poor wizard and let you parents use him as a secret keeper despite knowing he was a traitor…"

"HE KNEW?" screamed Rose. "That bearded bastard knew?"

Morta paused to allow Rose to stop ranting before continuing.

"… So the prophecy would be carried out. He had made similar plans so that the Longbottoms secret would leak out. If the records are correct he asked the secret keeper for a paper version of the secret, probably with a confundus charm."

Morta saw that Rose was once again about to rant for the second time in as many minutes.

"How about you hold the questions and you're eventual explosion until the end, shall we?" she asked to which Rose nodded.

"Good. Continuing on; your parents will – which Dumbledore witnessed – was deliberately violated. You were not supposed to go to the Dursleys; the half a dozen or so potential guardians listed in the will were obliviated of the knowledge and the will was sealed in the name of your safety. The will – while it doesn't say Sirius Black was the secret keeper – clearly states that in the event your parents were killed by Riddle that Pettigrew would receive a total of 'two knuts and our curse.'"

Rose opened her mouth to speak before being silenced by a look from the child named Morta.

"Half a dozen times you were injured enough by the Dursleys to gain Dumbledore attention. Pomfrey was taken by Dumbledore to Privet Drive and he later would obliviated both yourself and Pomfrey of the knowledge.

Dumbledore regularly blocks communication attempts by Gringotts with you; instead he receives all of your banking mail. If you had walked into Gringotts after you were thirteen the Goblins would have informed you that you have non-monetary access to your family vault, meaning you can remove books and other items from it."

"What would he have had to gain from that?" asked Rose before she could be cut off.

"Could be a lot of reasons," she replied with a sigh. "You might have started asking awkward questions about the Potter family, the books in there could not be 'moderated' by Dumbledore so they could have contained anything or it would have shown you how rich you are. I don't understand the inner workings of Old Whisker's mind."

Rose signed and motioned for Morta to continue.

"Despite being one of the two most politically powerful men in Magical Britain he _somehow_ couldn't get your godfather a trial. During his short meeting with Dumbledore before the dementors were scheduled to meet him he was obliviated of the information concerning your parents will tying up the last loose end. He chose to keep him around as he believed his money and position would be useful in controlling you and funding the Order.

Didn't you think it was strange all of your trials and tribulations throughout your early years at Hogwarts could be solved by young children? The protections on the Stone could have been dealt with by an exceptional fourth year by themselves, the Basilisk should have been obvious to every reasonably qualified staff member – there are less than half a dozen things that can petrify like that. It's really quite ridiculous."

Rose opened her mouth to say something but nothing came out and she simply gave up, having no explanation for it.

"He was preparing you to be a hero, someone who happily faces danger and considers it a normal occurrence," explained Morta to a confused Rose. "Probably more compulsion charms not only on you but the Hogwarts staff to stop anyone from making the connections needed."

Morta signed and shuffled through more documents spewed on her desk.

"Then we have to ask why there was no investigation into Cedric Diggory's death, why you never met with anyone from the DMLE. Isn't that rather odd?" she asked. "Dumbledore knew that the Ministry denying Riddle's return would by him time to build up his own forces while he desperately 'convinced' Deatheaters to change their evil ways."

Rose snorted at that.

"Is he insane? How often has that worked? I can only think of once when that worked and that was Snape; one or two Deatheater conversions don't make up for the lost life because they couldn't get in gear fast enough!"

"Dumbledore believes in second chances and will happily give them out despite the loss of innocent life in the process," explained Morta.

"How can he rationalise that? – wait, I don't think it can be rationalised, he sounds almost as delusional as Mrs Weasley," said Rose before sighing. "Why tell me this anyway? How will knowing all this stuff help? It's too late to fix all of this when I go back now."

"Who said you were going back now?" said the tiny Angel of Death with a smirk. "I said there were a few rules that could be broken for last chances. We can send you back to any point in your history after your fate was set in stone by prophecy and you get to keep your memories this time around."

"Any time?" asks Rose with shock.

"Any time after Riddle tried to kill you, but I would suggest not going back too far," answered Morta. "In my professional opinion you should go to the very end of your third year at Hogwarts."

"Why not go back to before Hogwarts and simply destroy all the horcruxes? Wouldn't his wraith then die for good? If you choose after third year I'd have to find a way to kill Nagini and that means getting within spitting distance of Tom," asked Rose curiously.

"You think a war ends just because you cut off the army's head?" asked Morta with a doubtful raise of an eyebrow. "You need to take out his inner circle at the very least. If Riddle had never returned it would have only been a few years before Lucius Malfoy firmly cemented his hold on the Ministry through bribes and careful assassinations, nothing good would have come from that. You need to use Riddle's return to lure his Deatheaters into a trap and then take them out, preferably killing them so they can't bribe their way out of it."

Rose didn't sit comfortably at killing all of them to which Morta gave a dramatic sigh.

"Think about all the innocent people that will die if they go free," she stated. "Does that make you feel better?"

"I need to sleep on it I think," she replied.

"Whatever," she said dismissively. "There are a few rules of course; you can't tell anyone about death or your time-travel unless authorised – your ladies are on the list and so is your godfather and you'll have somewhat regular check-ins with me to confirm you're on the correct track. Sound reasonable?"

Rose nodded.

"Good," said Morta simply. "This is what _I_ think you should do; arrive on the Hogwarts Express at the end of the year, tell your Godfather to get back to England and not tell Dumbledore he's doing so, arrange for yourself, Granger, Lovegood and Weasley to covertly meet up – I'd suggest speaking with your godfather and using Grimmauld Place, you need to go there anyway, speak to the goblins about accessing the Potter Family vaults, speak to Madam Bones about getting your godfather a trial – unlike Fudge she will at least consider it, find a healer who knows something about souls and get rid of Riddle's soul from your forehead, complete your bond and learn occlumency before the end of the holidays, hunt down horcruxes, end up in the Tournament – you can use this to unsuspiciously dump Ronald, and finally spring Riddle's trap. At that point I think we can make further plans for the future," she finished with a creepy smile.

"How long will this bond take?" asked Rose.

"Depends how well you know the person," she replied. "With Granger I think you could get it within a few weeks – possibly less, you already love each other. You'll most likely have to get to know Weasley and Lovegood all over again. The bond will form when both parties love each other and accept it, the love should be helped along by you all be soulmates."

"What if Dumbledore tries to break it again? He might kill us!"

"If he's stupid enough to try he will," replied the Reaper. "But by the time he finds out – the start of your school in September at the latest – your bonds should be very strong and he'd have to be insane to try to break it then. You should also register your bond with the Ministry discretely, and then he will have trouble sweeping it under the rug if he somehow manages to break it without killing you."

"How long will it take to get the bonds to the 'very strong' level?"

"About three or four days, maybe two if you keep in close physical contact."

"'Close physical contact'?" she asked cautiously.

"Nude, or near enough," replied the Reaper without shame as Rose blushed.

The conversation continued for several hours as Rose and Morta hammered out the fine details in the plan, a plan that would put Salazar to shame and offered many contingencies.

"Paperwork time!" said Morta with mock enthusiasm, dropping her usual cold and angry demeanour. "I _love_ paperwork; the sore wrist from signing your name over and over again, the strained eyes from reading for too long and that dry feeling on your fingertips from handling too much paper, don't you love it?"

Rose just glared as Morta dumped a contract several inches think on the desk in front of her.

"I'd suggest reading it cover to cover so you know exactly what it entails," she said before noticing Rose's continued glare. "Or I could just tell you the gist of it and you can go ahead and sign every page for me and we can get out of here."

"I'll take that option thanks," replied Rose.

"Well, it basically lists the conditions on which we are sending you back through time and the punishments for breaking them," she said. "It outlines them in legal jargon and lists every way the afterlife legal team had thought of that you could possibly communicate the information as to cover any loopholes that may arise."

"Clarification of the conditions?" asked Rose.

"Basically don't tell anyone you're not supposed too, do your best to protect the information, don't use any of your future knowledge to place bets and finally do your best to complete your destiny."

"Simple, huh?" replied Rose. "Not sure why that requires a thousand odd pages."

"Lawyers and bureaucracy," she said as if it explained everything. "Nothing is simple with them."

Rose spent what felt like several hours repeatedly signing her name over and over again before finally reaching the end of the think legal tome.

"Done?" she asked. "One last thing; I'll be making the occasional visit to make sure you're fulfilling your destiny. Now get out of my office!"

Everything faded to black and Rose woke to the rhythmic 'clack, clack' of the train moving along the tracks out of Hogsmead Station. Opening her eyes she resisted the sudden urge to knock Ron Weasley's stupid grin of his face and stomp on his crotch while wearing high heels – not that she'd ever worn any before.

* * *

**There we are, how does it look? Leave a review for me, would you? I would like some constructive feedback. People who are incapable of posting something useful or intelligent will simply be ignored.**

**Expect lots more Ron, Molly and Dumbledore bashing**

**No updates for a few weeks people. I was supposed to be studying for exams instead of writing this chapter so I'll be getting on with them now**


	2. - Is it Really That Time Again?

**Second chapter.**

**I should be updating Unspeakable Employment next**

* * *

**Last Chance, Miss Potter**

**Chapter Two:**

**Is It Really That Time Again?**

Mentally slapping herself for going for her wand, Rose dug through her trunk for her parchment and quills, then made some excuse involving Sirius, peace-and-quiet and a letter, before leaving the compartment. One carriage down she found an empty compartment and began to write.

_Padfoot,_

_DO NOT READ THE OTHER LETTER UNTIL YOU READ THIS_.

_Get your wand out and cast the strongest finite incantatem you can on yourself._

_Now you've done that, you should know the password._

_Rose._

Happy with her first letter she proceeded with the second

_Now we've gotten that out the way,_

_We need to meet face-to-face. Some things have come to light that I find quite disturbing and I can't risk them in a letter. Worse still I think Dumbledore is involved and put a compulsion charm on you to encourage you to leave the country (hence the finite). Get back here asap and I shouldn't need to explain but don't tell Dumbledore. Keep telling him you're in whatever tropical paradise you are in now._

_When you're back in the Isles, DO NOT MENTION ANYTHING IN YOUR LETTERS, instead mention something about three beautiful native girls and firewhiskey, and I'll meet you in the Forest of Dean two nights after the date of your letter. Look for green sparks near the river._

_Stay safe,_

_Rose._

Rose added the necessary charms knowing they wouldn't stop Dumbledore but knew they would at least slow Sirius down enough for him to perform the charms and then hoped that the mail redirection wards are limited to Hogwarts and Privet Drive. Rose then sealed both letters in an envelope before moving onto another letter telling Uncle Vernon he didn't need to pick her up and that she would make her own way home as she had things to attend too in London. Sealing that letter she started on her letter to Hermione.

_Hermione,_

_I was hoping we could arrange a meet-up over the summer. I know Dumbledore wants me to stay put at Privet Drive but I can't stand another eight weeks cooped up with my relatives, I was hoping to get a few breaks. Is this alright? If it is, call me instead of sending it by owl; I'll explain why I was hoping you would call when we meet-up and in private._

_Love, Rose._

_PS – I kept this a secret from Ron because he would get jealous. I was hoping for a bit of girl time and was hoping we could shopping to get me a decent wardrobe. Something Ron wouldn't enjoy but would get jealous over anyway._

_PPS – Call in the middle of the day on a work day to avoid Uncle Vernon._

Rose fretted for a few minutes whether 'Love, Rose' was appropriate before remembering she had always finished her letters to Hermione like that. She then sealed the envelope and made her way back to the compartment.

"Oi, where you been?" asked Ron through a mouthful of chocolate.

Rose bit back a sharp response and composed her face before replying.

"I wanted some peace and quiet to write a lengthy letter to Sirius," she replied as she tied the two letters for delivery to Hedwig's foot and threw her out the window.

Rose spent the next few hours trying to avoid cursing Ron and supressing her annoyance at him as he droned on about his usual topics of chess and Quidditch. He had finally shut up when a small owl that would soon be known as Pigwidgeon came through the open window with a letter from Sirius.

Rose pretended to be interested while Ron and Hermione read and discussed the letter. Before she forgot, Rose decided to shrink her trunk to matchbox size while she still could; putting enough power into it so it would fade after a dozen hours or so. Hermione then demanded to learn the charm and before long they pulled into the station.

"Hermione?" asked Rose after Ron had disembarked. "I've got a letter for you. Open it when you're in the car."

Hermione perplexedly took the letter and followed Ron off the train.

o0o0o0o

Rose walked the three or so kilometres from Kings Cross Station to Charing Cross Road and entered the Leaky Cauldron before making her way up Diagon Alley and into Gringotts.

"Yes?" asked the goblin teller pointedly.

"Master Goblin," said Rose in respect. "I wish to speak to someone about the state of my accounts."

"Key?" he shot back, ignoring Rose's attempt at respect.

"Unfortunately someone else who shouldn't is in possession of my key, is there another method of identifying myself?" answered Rose.

The goblin grunted with distain.

"Blacktooth!" he shouted. "Take this human to the ancestry department."

Rose was lead through the maze of tunnels and corridors and ended up in an office. In the office was a goblin behind a desk with a large rune-covered bowl on top of it.

"Another human that has lost their key?" he predicted.

"Someone else has it without my consent actually, and I'd like them to not know I'm moving against them at the present," replied Rose.

The goblin merely raised an eyebrow and indicated to the bowl.

"Add you blood to the ritual bowl until it changed to a black colour and then ladle some out onto the parchment provided," said the goblin. "Your accounts – if any – will be charged twenty galleons for the service. If you don't have any accounts or the balance required you'll be working the money off in the mines."

Rose took the offered knife and sliced open her and with a wince before steadily dripping her blood into the bowl. When it turned black she found her hand had already healed so she proceeded to ladle some of bowl's contents onto the paper.

_Rose Lily Potter_

_DOB: 31__st__ July, 1980_

_Father: James Charlus Potter._

_Mother: Lily Marie Potter (née Evans)._

"Very well Ms Potter," said the goblin. "Twenty galleons have been charged to your account. Do you accept the twenty galleon fee you forge a new key?"

Resisting the urge to very rudely roll her eyes at the ludicrous fees involved she accepted and roughly calculated how much they were charging her in pounds for a new key which worked out to be nearly four-hundred pounds.

"I wish to speak to whoever manages the Potter Account," said Rose.

"That can be arranged," he said before talking to the goblin that had escorted Rose to this room in Gobbledegook. "See Bloodclaw – the teller you spoke to upon entry to the bank – for you key on the way out. Blacktooth will lead you to the Potter Account manager."

Rose followed the goblin through another set of maze like corridors to a door marked 'Account Manager Goldfist' and directed her inside. Inside she found a lavishly furnished room decorated with assorted weapons and armour.

"What do you want, human?" asked the goblin who was presumably Goldfist from behind his desk

"I wish to enquire about my accounts and have been informed that as I am now thirteen that I can gain limited access to my family vault," she replied.

"Name?"

"Potter."

Goldfist spoke in Gobbledegook to Blacktooth who responded before leaving the office.

"As the last of a registered Ancient or Noble House, you – at the age of thirteen – are able to have some say in your financial affairs in preparation for your transition to adulthood," explained the goblin. "You are not able to increase the investments with the money in your family vault but you are able to move the money that is already invested around. You are also able to remove non-monetary items from your family vaults; monetary items being coins, bullion, bonds and unset gems. Heirlooms may be removed but may not be sold, gifted or leased in exchange for compensation to anyone outside the family."

"Would this be like emancipation?" asked Rose.

"No it is not. Emancipation claims must go before the Wizengamot and are very unlikely to be granted to a thirteen year old." asked Goldfist with bewilderment. "This doesn't change your legal standing in any way. All this does is enable limited access to your vaults and enable you to rearrange your investments with the hope you'll learn something before you have complete control and mess everything up."

"Oh," said Rose. "I assume there is something I need to sign?"

Goldfan pushed the paperwork in front of her so with dozen signatures later, Rose was able to access the family vaults.

"I was informed that Gringotts has my parents will on hand," said Rose carefully. "Is it possible to get a copy?"

"While the will was sealed by the Wizengamot and thus hasn't been executed – as the Ministry executes wizarding wills – we do have a copy on hand. However its contents cannot be discussed before the Wizengamot until it is unsealed."

"I would like a copy," said Rose prompting Goldfist to make a copy of the will found in the Potter file.

"Are there any laws against me sharing this copy with the public?" asked Rose. "The public isn't the Wizengamot…"

"I assume you wish to force the will to be read?" asked the goblin.

"I do. I believe the Chief Warlock sealed it so he could violate it."

"A dangerous game you are playing – however – I am not a lawyer, I can only truly speak of financial matters to you with any certainty."

Rose nodded and asked for a simple rundown of the Potter Estate.

"You have approximately one point two million galleons in liquid assets – of which ten-thousand galleons are in your trust vault, and four point six million galleons in commercial property which last financial year generated a seven point one percent return. Non-commercial property includes a villa on an island off the coast of Borneo, a house in Godric's Hollow, and property in Wales that once was the location of Potter Mansion until its destruction during the murders of Charlus and Dorea Potter in 1979 – your paternal grandparents – by Deatheaters. The family vault has not been audited since 1921 and therefore does not have an accurate inventory; however I can read you the inventory of major items from that time."

Rose motioned for him to read it and he continued.

"Seventeen sets of engagement rings, fifteen sets of wedding rings, one-hundred and twelve pieces of miscellaneous jewellery, one invisibility cloak designated an heirloom, three goblin forged swords designated as heirlooms…" he said with poorly hidden disgust before continuing. "…One set of goblin made armour, seven sets of dragonhide battle robes in various states of repair, forty-three wands, several hundred pieces of clothing of various ages and states of repair, one library grimoire, approximately three-thousand seven-hundred books…" to which Rose raised her eyebrows. "…and a muggle shotgun."

"A muggle shotgun?" asked Rose with bewilderment.

"Yes, a muggle shotgun. Apparently Edward Potter – then Lord Potter – was a fan of muggle skeet shooting to the dismay of many pureblood wizards on the Wizengamot," he answered.

Rose merely raised her eyebrows again and didn't bother to enquire further in the matter before moving on.

"A library grimoire?" she asked to which Goldfist frowned.

"Three years of magical education and you've never encountered the term?"

Slightly more embarrassed than she should have been with her – in reality – six years of magical education she shook her head.

"A composition of magic," he answered. "In this case however it's an enchanted book that can remotely display copies of any book, parchment or scroll placed on the enchanted shelves in your vault. It means you can have access to the nearly four-thousand books in your vault without carrying them around, they also can't be stolen – some of the texts in your vault are probably very valuable."

"I think I need that," said Rose. "Has any money been coming out of my accounts besides from when I visited to withdraw money?"

"Ten-thousand galleons have been transferred from your family vault each year since the deaths of parents. It was removed by Albus Dumbledore and marked as being for your upkeep," he said. "You could raise a single child on a lot less than ten-thousand galleons a year, but considering someone of your stature it's not overly excessive."

Rose was fuming and fought to keep herself calm.

"Where has that money being going too?" she asked carefully.

"Into the account of Albus Dumbledore."

"And then?"

"I'm not at liberty to disclose the coming and goings of other bank clients," he said simply.

Rose narrowed her eyes at the goblin.

"I can assure you this money hasn't been spent on my upkeep," stated Rose firmly. "I haven't seen a knut of it."

"Which would be a failing of the body who appointed your guardian," he replied. "You would need to take the matter up with them and bring up charges against him for fraud through them. We're simply allowing some gold to be removed from your family accounts to cover your upbringing. A very common occurrence and it's not our duty to inspect record to prove it is being spent correctly. That is the DMLE's job."

Rose scowled and moved on.

"Am I supposed to be receiving mail from Gringotts?"

"By default, until you start managing your own account your magical guardian receives your banking statements," he said before narrowing his eyes. "I take it you didn't receive our letter on your thirteenth birthday informing you that you could have limited access to your accounts and start to manage your investments? You found out through other means?"

"Yes."

The goblin grumbled.

"Interfering with mail is a crime, but it is very difficult to prove."

"Which leads to my next question," responded Rose. "I imagine many businesses receive large amounts of mail that is difficult to handle at their premises. Does Gringotts offer some sort of postal box system?"

"We have such a service available for a fee," answered the goblin. "Would you like to sign up for this?"

"Yes, please," she replied as the goblin dumped more paperwork in front of her. Rose eventually chose the alias of 'Rose Evans' as an alias.

"Could you please continue to send my bank statements to Dumbledore – who I assume is my magical guardian…"

"He his."

"…As if nothing has changed while sending my bank statements to my postal box."

"It will be done," replied the goblin with a slight grin.

"I take it that Gringotts employs its own healers? For your tomb raiding expeditions and such?" she asked to which to goblin nodded. "I require the discrete services of a mind healer. I don't feel comfortable going to Saint Mungos for this."

"The service is expensive," replied Goldfist. "But medical expenses are considered a necessity and can be taken from the family vault rather than your trust vault. Here is her name and contact details."

Rose took the offered slip of parchment and pocketed it.

"Is there anything else you wish to discuss?" asked Goldfist.

"How would I go about make large purchases? Do you have chequebooks or something?" asked Rose.

"Chequebooks are available but they are commonly only accepted for large purchases," he replied.

"I would like to get one."

"Anything else?"

"Did my parents have a lawyer before they died?"

"They did, but he was killed not long after they went into hiding," answered Goldfist. "Would you like a recommendation?"

"Yes, thank you," replied Rose, taking another – slightly larger – piece of parchment. "I would also like to speak with some Gringotts Warders; I have a possible job for them."

o0o0o0o

Rose once again followed Blacktooth through the maze of offices and corridors until she came upon an office staffed by both humans and goblins. They then headed to an office marked 'Surveys'.

"This is the office of Master Steelwall, he should be able to answer any questions you might have," said Blacktooth.

Rose knocked on the door and entered when a guttural voice said 'come in'.

"Ms Potter," he said to Rose's surprise. "What can I do for you today?"

"I was hoping to have some wards examined and have some changes made to them. But…" she said taking a deep breath. "I suspect they may not be legal, and I thinks modify them might be illegal too."

The goblin simply brought his hands together and rested his chin of them while staring acutely at Rose across his desk.

"Go on," he said.

"Dumbledore put them up and told me they are powered by living with a blood relative and my mother sacrifice; he called them blood wards," she said as Steelwall's eyebrows connected. "I was hoping they could be modified so that Dumbledore – who I assume has a detection ward linked to it – keeps getting told I'm staying inside the wards while I'm not and also modifying them so I get notified if another magical enters the ward boundary. Is this possible?"

"It most likely is, though I'm concerned about what Dumbledore called 'blood wards'," replied the goblin. "Normally wards are powered by ambient magical energy. Every magical being 'leaks' magic which the ward stone absorbs, powering them. It's why places like Hogwarts are nearly impenetrable, hundreds of students leaking magic power the wards. 'Blood Bound' wards though are bound to a person or persons; they directly drain the magic from a person. Under normal conditions the wards would draw a small amount of the person's magical energy, however, under load conditions – which is to say under attack – it could draw all of the persons magical energy, exhausting or possibly killing them. They are very powerful, easily being equivalent to an ambient powered ward powered by fifty or more people."

"So this could be dangerous too me?" she asked with concern.

"It could, assuming the wards are blood bound wards. We would need to examine them," he said. "As for legality, it's only illegal to put up wards in a muggle area without a permit; nothing wrong with modifying them."

"Sounds wonderful," said Rose beaming. "How do you want me to pay for this?"

o0o0o0o

Rose made her way out of Gringotts after filling out a cheque for the initial warder's fee – organising to meet the warders at 10am the next morning, retrieving the library grimoire and filling her moneybag up with Galleons and Pounds Sterling. She decided to read her parents will over some Icecream.

After ordering a Caramel Sunday with a banana she picked up her parents will and read.

_We, Lord James Charlus Potter and Lady Lily Marie Potter of the Most Noble and Most Ancient House of Potter, on the21st of August of the year 1981, being of sound mind and body, hereby declare this as our last will and testament and declare all other wills null and void._

_We bequeath all of our assets to our daughter, Rose Lily Potter except for the following:_

_To Peter Brian Pettigrew – If we have died by the hand of the self-styled 'Lord Voldemort' or his followers at our home under Fidelus we leave you two knuts and our curse, else we leave you fifty-thousand galleons._

_To Sirius Orion Black – We leave you fifty-thousand galleons._

_To Remus John Lupin – We leave you fifty-thousand galleons and James's wardrobe._

_To Severus Tobias Snape – We leave you twenty-five-thousand galleons and Lily's stocks of potion ingredients._

_To whom gains custody of our daughter – We leave ten-thousand galleons per year for our daughter's upkeep and access to any of the Potter Family properties until our daughter is of age._

_In the event of our deaths we leave custody of our daughter to one the following, starting with first preference and ending in last preference:_

_-Sirius Orion Black – Rose's Godfather_

_-Alice Longbottom – Rose's Godmother._

_-Amelia Olivia Bones – Good friend and James's mentor._

_-Alex and Pheobe McKinnon – Good family friends._

_-Severus Tobias Snape – Good friend._

_Under no circumstances is our daughter to go Lily's sister Petunia Dursley or her husband._

_Signed by our hand;_

**_Lord James Potter_**

**_Lady Lily Potter_**

_of the Most Noble and Ancient House of Potter._

_Witnessed by;_

**_Sirius Black_**

**_Chief Warlock of the Wizengamot, Albus Dumbledore._**

"Fucking bastard," swore Rose under her breath. "He seals it and then violates it. That must be illegal."

Rose, finishing her Sunday, got up and headed towards the offices of the Prophet. At the reception desk she received a dubious look from the aging receptionist.

"What can I do for you?" she asked with a voice subtly laced with contempt.

"Please tell Ms Skeeter I have some information that is very much worth her time," replied Rose coldly.

"What makes you think you're worth her time?"

"Just tell her Rose Potter wants to speak to her," she sneered back.

The receptionist quickly paled before directing Rose upstairs to Rose's grumblings about having to use her fame to her advantage.

As Rose knocked on Rita's door and went in to Rita's recognition.

"Ms Potter!" she said in a cheery voice. "Interested in doing an interview, are we? Looking to use a bit of your fame?"

Rose scowled before laying it in.

"Rita, please be quiet while I make myself clear. I have several pieces of information that will be very worth your while that will make some very powerful heads roll," said Rose as Rita developed a gleam in her eyes. "But I trust you about as far as I can throw you, I'm giving you this info free of charge, but to make sure you stick to the facts and tell it with the correct spin I'll leave this over your head; I know about your little _insect_ problem. You work with me and this will be very profitable, go against me and you'll be spending the next few years with dementors for friends."

Rita paled.

"What do you want?" she asked nervously.

"As I said, just write the stories the way I want them. I promise you that heads will roll so it will fit in with your usual style of reporting."

"So what is this information?" asked Rita, regaining some colour.

"My parents will," answered Rose as Rita's eyes grew wide. "They left a copy with the goblins. I presume you know the Ministry copy was sealed by Dumbledore?"

Rita nodded.

"Well, Dumbledore was a witness. He knew what it said, sealed it, violated it and then appointed himself my guardian."

"How did he violate it?" asked Rita.

"He ignored the fact Madam Bones and Professor Snape were able bodied and skipped over them on the list of potential guardians, appointed himself my guardian and then he dumped me on the doorstep of my aunt and uncle despite the fact the will clearly states than I under no circumstances am to live with them."

"That won't make heads roll, you realise? Sure, it will cause a bit of controversy…" trailed off Rita with some hesitation.

"There's more," replied Rose. "The will heavily implies – though doesn't explicitly state – that Peter Pettigrew was the secret keeper, not Sirius Black. I also have some more information that Peter Pettigrew is alive and well, and that Minister Fudge and Dumbledore covered it up."

Rita could barely suppress her glee at such a story as she read over the will.

"Before you start jumping up and down, Rita, I need to make this clear," said Rose firmly. "I have a number of things I want out of this, most importantly my Godfather declared innocent. So this has to be very carefully planned."

"I assume you've already planned this?" asked Rita to which Rose nodded before Rita's face fell. "Shouldn't this come out at Black's trial?"

"He didn't get one, I'm sure you can get some heads rolling from that."

"Do you know who sent him to Azkaban?" she said, suddenly taking notes with a flourish of a quill that thankfully wasn't a Quick-Quotes quill.

"Barty Crouch signed the order, but I think Dumbledore was behind it," answered Rose. "Try to spin it that way at the least. Dumbledore is the one I want to see knocked down a few pegs."

Rita nodded as she made more notes.

"So how do you want to play this?" asked Rita.

"You've received a copy of my parents will from a confidential source. You'll heavily suggest that Dumbledore sealed it to control me while asking questions as to whether Sirius Black was actually my parent's secret keeper while asking why my parents would leave Peter nothing if the secret was revealed to Voldemort –" said Rose, causing Rita to shudder to which Rose rolled her eyes. "Then in a few days you'll hear some more information that is linked with the story; that Sirius Black had gone to Hogwarts to capture Peter Pettigrew, who's an unregistered rat animagus –"

"How did Black know Pettigrew was alive and well at Hogwarts?" asked Rita curiously.

"About ten or eleven months back the Weasley Family was on the front cover of the Daily Prophet. Peter had been hiding – disguised at the family's pet rat for the last twelve years – and Sirius saw the rat being rather familiar with him, on Ron's shoulder. Sirius acquired the paper from Fudge when he made his annual inspection of Azkaban."

Rita nodded with a strange understanding before Rose continued.

"You'll hear that Peter Pettigrew was seen alive at Hogwarts near the end of term and was nearly captured by Professor Lupin, Hermione Granger, Ron Weasley and myself, which the Minister and Dumbledore covered up while ignoring the evidence.

"Now, once you've received this information you'll go to Hermione with a letter I'm about to write. She'll give you an interview, because you didn't hear them from me because I don't want Dumbledore knowing I'm catching on. Do you have a Pensieve around here?"

"We do."

"Good, I'll give you my memories of the night and you can get your camera guy to take some photos," said Rose. "Ask Hermione to get her medical records from Madam Pomfrey proving she wasn't confounded like several people claimed, and after my Godfather gets his name cleared I'm sure he will happily give you an exclusive interview. How does that sound?"

"Not too bad a plan, except for pressuring Fudge," said Rita as she nibbled on the end of her quill. "You'll need the backing of either Dumbledore or Fudge to get your Godfather a trial. If you make both look bad they'll dig their heels in and you'll get nothing. I do want that exclusive interview."

"Pile it on Dumbledore then," suggested Rose. "If Dumbledore thinks he's losing control of me he'll backpedal and back a trial. If you suggest to Fudge that he's 'correcting the mistakes of the last administration' and that Dumbledore tried to cover up Sirius's innocence he'll buy it because it makes him look good."

"Yes, that might work," she said with a smirk. "You'll have to go before the Wizengamot to unseal your parents will. How about afterwards you give me an interview talking about you loss of trust in the Headmaster? How he's trying to hide your parent's legacy? That will get him backpedalling fast."

Rose nodded.

"Anything else you need for the stories?" asked Rose.

"That it's for now, I'll contact you if I need more."

"Use the name 'Rose Evans'," said Rose. "It's a mail box. I certain Dumbledore monitors my mail."

Rita nodded in understanding as Rose left before diving heavy first into the first of a series of articles that will turn the wizarding world upside down.

o0o0o0o

Rose made her way down the alleyway, hoping to get to Ollivanders before he closed up for the night.

"Damn," swore Rose once she saw the 'closed' sign. "Going to have to be careful apperating, I don't need another under-age magic violation."

Rose left through the Leaky Cauldron and sought out a secluded alleyway to apparate from, disappearing with a soft pop and reappearing several blocks away from Privet Drive – having yet been able to confirm or disprove any theories she had on how the trace worked. She slowly made her way to Number Four in the setting sun, organising her mind over the massive amount of information she had received both today and in the 'limbo' world.

"Girl!" shouted the voice of Uncle Vernon. "What took you so long? You're expected to make dinner!"

Rose froze half-way up the stairs. She thought back to what she did last time around. Remembering how she had threatened the Dursleys with threats of her convict Godfather murdering them in their sleep she began to tell them before realising it wouldn't have as much of an impact as Uncle Vernon wasn't questioning her about the letter she had received from Sirius on the train. Rose quickly formed a new plan.

"Oh, well, my Godfather wanted to see me and we ran a little bit overtime," said Rose as she fought to hide her grin.

"Godfather? You don't have a godfather!" sputtered Uncle Vernon as his face started changing colour.

"Yes I do, you saw him on the telly last summer when he broke out of goal," replied Rose, enjoying this too much. "He was best man at my parents wedding – I uh, don't know if you went but you might have met him."

Uncle Vernon continued to sputter before simply turning around and walking back into the kitchen and out of sight. No longer needing to hide her grin, Rose made her way to her room and took her trunk out of her pocket, waiting for the shrinking charm to wear off.

"Dobby?" asked Rose to nothing in particular.

Dobby appeared with a pop, bobbing up and down on the balls of his feet.

"Missy Rosie Potter called?" asked Dobby.

"Sure did, Dobby, thought I wasn't sure it would work…" trailed off Rose. "Say, have you got a job yet?"

Dobby's ears immediately drooped as he started to fidget nervously.

"No-one be wanting Dobby now, Miss, 'tis very hard fer elves to get new work after being given clothes, Miss," answered Dobby. "Even harder when Dobby be's wanting paying."

"Well, Dobby," said Rose. "I happen to need an elf right now. How would you like a job?"

Dobby immediately perked up at this.

"Missy Rosie, Dobby accepts!" he said, bouncing around.

"So, how much you want per week for pay?" asked Rose cautiously.

'Oh, no! No pay needed for Dobby to work for the great Rose Potter, Miss!"

"Sorry, Dobby, but you have to take something. Hermione will have my head if I don't," said Rose to which Dobby drooped again. "How about this; I give you pay and you can spend it on whatever you want, like when I send you to Diagon Alley to get something, you can use that money? Say ten galleons a week?"

"Dobby can accept that if I use it to buy things for the great Rose Potter."

"Great, any extra you need you can take from my vault," said Rose as dobby eagerly nodded. "So how do we do this? Do I need to say something or are you already my elf or what?"

"Yous just have to say you accept Dobby as your elf."

"I, Rose Lily Potter, accept Dobby as my elf," said Rose to Dobby's joy.

"You'se magic is very strong Mistress Rosie."

"My magic?" asked Rose. "And it's just Rose, Dobby, no need for Mistress, if you must just keep calling me Miss."

"Dobby can feel Missy Rosie's magic," said Dobby. "You'se is much stronger than bad master Malfoy."

"Why could you only feel my magic after taking you as my elf?"

"Elfs get most of their magic from their masters or mistresses," explained Dobby. "We's only produce enough ourselfs to barely live. Any more magic comes from Missy Rosie."

"You should have told me that after Malfoy freed you. I would have taken you then."

"Dobby thoughts you knew, Missy Rosie," said Dobby.

"I grew up in the muggle world, Dobby. A lot of things many witches and wizards take for granted are rather foreign to me. Next time if I miss something that is normal in the wizarding world tell me and I'll fix it."

"Dobby is sorry, Miss. Dobby will punish himself to make up for it," he said as he moved to slam his fingers in the door.

"NO!" shouted Rose a bit too loudly. "No punishing yourself, Dobby. If you think you need to be punished, ask me and I'll assign a _suitable_ punishment."

Rose made a mental note to never actually punish Dobby.

"Missy Rosie is too kind to Dobby," he said bouncing again.

"Uh, do you need some place to sleep?" asked Rose. "A little elf sized bed or something?"

"Oh no, Miss. Dobby will build an elf nest somewhere to sleep in!"

"Just – uh – make sure you do so somewhere Aunt Petunia won't find you," said Rose awkwardly. "She'd probably have a stroke if she found you."

"Dobby can do's that, Miss," he replied cheerily.

"Actually, don't be seen by anyone in my family, every single one of them would freak if they saw you and it would cause me untold grief."

o0o0o0o

Rose unfolded her copy of the Prophet the next morning to find suspicions correct, Rita hadn't had time to write the article yet, after all, why would she do overtime when no one else was fighting to break the story first? Rose settled for the story breaking tomorrow instead and got ready to meet the warders.

"Oh damn," muttered Rose. "I need to write a letter to that Healer."

Seeing as she had at least thirty minutes until ten o'clock and when the warders showed up she set out write the letter to the healer requesting her services and handed it to Dobby to deliver who eagerly accepted the task.

"Will do Missy Rosie," he said bouncing.

"If she's going to write a reply immediately stick around for it and bring it back."

"Yes, Miss," he said before vanishing.

As it reached five to ten, Rose made her way out of the house ignoring Uncle Vernon's shouting and towards the park at the end of the street, where she found a group of three people.

"Ms Potter," said a short man in inhuman and gruff voice.

"A glamour I take it?" asked Rose.

The glamoured goblin merely raised an eyebrow and ignored the question.

"I am Barchoke," he said. "We need to cast several diagnostic charms on you while are inside the ward boundary to confirm our suspicions about the nature of these wards. Mr Milot shall do it while Mr Abrax and I conduct other tests on the wards. Is this acceptable?"

Rose nodded and Mr Milot led Rose over to what was presumably the boundary and started casting mumbled charms with a slight French accent at Rose while Barckoke and Mr Abrax walked around what looked like the boundary muttering and in Mr Abrax's case – waving his wand.

After several minutes the three humans and one goblin reconvened.

"Ms Potter is most certainly tied to the wards and directly powering them," spat Mr Milot.

Barchoke merely grumbled as Rose watched the discussion with earnest.

"The ward scheme is doubled layered backed up by a standard anti-apparation and anti-portkey dome wards and what appears to be some sort of detection dome ward," said Barchoke. "The outside layer has a very powerful confounding ward tied to a magical signature based trigger. Presumably if you're not on the access list and your magical the outside ward goes off and confounds you so you stop wondering who lives here and leave, as it's tied to magical signatures it only affects magicals and doesn't do anything to muggles."

"The inner layer seems to be some sort of brain haemorrhaging ward," continued Mr Abrax somewhat uncomfortably. "Very nasty, wards like that are only seen in ancient tombs and are considered dark. It too is linked to some sort of magical based trigger – probably tied to the same access list. Normally such a ward would take nearly half a minute to kill someone but because it's tied to you and draws from you magical core it would most likely be lethal in several seconds. If you weren't inside the wards it would probably draw on the stored energy in the central ward stone and kill you like this ward normally would."

"The wards themselves are very powerful and would be very effective at stoping someone who knew nothing about wards," said Barchoke with a sneer. "But to anyone who has had experience with them they would be pretty easily taken down. It's like the wards were constructed by someone who read a book on warding basics and then went and found a book on blood bound wards and ancient Egyptian wards and skipped all the material on proper warding tactics. The biggest issue is the placement of the perimeter ward stones; they have been place in a manner while very efficient when it comes to the number of stones required, it doesn't protect them as they've been placed in-between the outer and inner wards. All someone would have to do is wear some suitably enchanted objects to protect from the confounding ward and you'd have access to the stones. Then all you have to do is unbury them and destroy them. Considering the amateurish work I'd hazard a guess that the stones are unable to handle the strain associated with carrying the extra load if one of the stones is destroyed."

"So, very bad?" asked Rose cautiously.

"For your health, yes," said Mr Milot. "Under a prolonged attack the wards would drain you of your magic and kill you, if one of the perimeter ward stones was destroyed the others would suffer cascading failure and the magical backlash to your core would kill you."

"The wards were designed by an imbecile who was messing with what he didn't understand," spat Mr Abrax while Barchoke looked nonplussed.

"So what do we do?" asked Rose. "And don't forget whatever we do needs to be discreet, Dumbledore won't allow these wards to be modified."

"He wouldn't have any choice," said Mr Milot. "You need special permits to ward non-magical areas, no permits were issued for this; you're well within your right to have them destroyed not to mention the _illegal_ blood bounding and the haemorrhaging wards which is on the prescribed ward list."

"This is Dumbledore we're talking about here," shot back Rose. "He has the political power and connections to do it whether it's legal or not."

Mr Milot grumbled before Barchoke stepped it.

"We've been commissioned to do a job Mr Milot," sneered the goblin. "We don't follow the contact we don't get paid. Isn't that right, Ms Potter?"

"Correct," replied Rose succinctly.

"We have enough measurements here to start considering our options," said Mr Abrax. "We'll contact you shortly for a complete list of options."

The goblin nodded in agreement while Mr Milot stood by looking annoyed, and soon with some goodbyes the two wizards and goblin portkeyed away.

* * *

**I've decided to give a quick rundown on homosexuality in my take on the Wizarding World.**

If you're male an gay you're still expected to 'do your duty' to the family an provide an heir. After that the wizarding community doesn't care in you engage in same-sex relationships provided you don't do so publicly and flaunt it.

**If you're a woman and gay then you're in trouble; I decided to make them massive hypocrites. You're expected to be a faithful wife regardless and not engage in relationships with anyone expect for your husband. Forcing women apart is considered perfectly acceptable.**

Molly Weasley is going to be a shrieking banshee in this regard. She's going to be pretty fucked off about Rose and Ginny being gay which I hinted at last chapter with GW/LL. She pretty much expected Ginny to be a dutiful housewife like herself popping out babies every nine months or so and will being going to some lengths to 'protect' her daughter and surrogate daughter from such deviant behaviour. She'll most likely blame Hermione and Luna for it - it should be fun.

**Sirius will basically adopt the principle of 'If my family disproved of it then it's probably ok.'**

****

Please favourite and review.


	3. - Hard Proof

**Chapter 3 is up. **

**I hope to give my second chapter of 'Rise of the Inferi' a go next, but it might not work out so expect either 'Unspeakable Employment' or a new story I'm writing that consists of a a somewhat merciless Slytherin lesbian Fem!Harry who's the descendant of Morgana Le Fay on her mothers side and a Slytherin Ginny Weasley. It will be Fem!HP/GW, be very political and will be entitled 'The Venerable House of Le Fay'. In this story, Morgana Le Fay isn't evil - rather her image was defamed by Merlin and her half-brother Arthur because she was a Democrat who sought the stripping of power from the Crown and King, Fem!harry (who I've yet named) will attempt to mimic such actions by stripping the power from the Purebloods. It will be very brutal and will feature a very efficient and and tactically sound Voldemort too - ending with a powerstruggle over the Ministry - Voldemort on one side, Fem!Harry on the other. I would like feedback on the concept, cheers.**

**Now on with the story:**

* * *

**Last Chance, Miss Potter**

**Chapter Three:**

**Hard Proof**

Rose made her way back to Number Four to find Dobby in her room with the reply from the Mind Healer in hand.

_Ms Potter,_

_It is currently my day off from St Mungos and thus I am available at your convenience for an initial examination. Please reply with a time as soon as possible. If today is not at your convenience please reply so we can arrange a time for another day. _

_I am able to provide discreet and profession service but please be aware that my private rate is quite high at 5 galleons per hour and will require an initial fee of one hour paid up front. _

_I can bring a regime of general flushing potions at a cost of 13 Sickles per dose. Depending on what needs flushing you may need several doses._

_Healer Janice Claude,_

_St Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries,_

_Department of Mind Magics_

Rose scribbled a note back arranging to meet Healer Claude later that afternoon.

'She better be good for a hundred plus Pounds per hour,' thought Rose as she got ready to head out to Diagon Alley again.

"Girl!" screeched Aunt Petunia as Rose left the sanctuary of her room, intent on leaving to Diagon Alley. "Get down here!"

Rose quickened her pace to find Aunt Petunia holding the phone which she shoved in Rose's hands before sulking off to her immaculate kitchen.

"Hermione?" asked Rose over the phone.

"Rose!" came the familiar voice of Hermione Granger through the phone. "I thought for a second I wouldn't be able to get a hold of you. Your aunt seemed pretty adamant that you didn't exist initially."

Rose gave a small chuckle before replying.

"Yea, that's her alright," said Rose. "How you been?"

"Pretty good, already got everything unpacked and I've started on my summer homework."

'Typical,' thought Rose with a kind smirk.

"Rose…" said Hermione cautiously. "I know something's up, that letter isn't normal you. What's going on?"

"Quick on the uptake as usual, dear," said Rose with a slight huff before pinching the bridge of her nose in frustration that Hermione had figured her out so fast. "I think its best we discuss it face to face. The letter was merely a… _cover_ in case someone else read it. The phone would probably be safe but Aunt Petunia won't be happy if I hogged the phone for several hours and I don't want her to overhear this."

"Alright, I can do that," said Hermione. "Do you need to tell Dumbledore? Is it something he needs to know about?"

"N-no," she said too quickly. "He can't know, Hermione. I'm quite serious. You can't tell him a single thing."

"You sure?" she asked with concern.

"Definitely, Hermione, I assure you it will make sense when I see you."

"O-ok," agreed Hermione reluctantly. "But it better be good!"

"It will," said Rose. "So when do you want to meet up?"

"When are you free? I haven't got anything planned right now other than to get my homework over with."

"I can do tomorrow, if it's not too soon," she suggested.

"I can do that too, ten AM?" Hermione asked. "How are you getting here anyway?"

"I can do ten," agreed Rose. "I'll take the Night – or I should say _day_ – bus."

"Alright," replied Hermione rather happy about seeing her friend again and missing the lie. "Should be good. Oh – and you really do need a new wardrobe, your current one is rather scrappy. We _will_ be having a girl's day out after your explanation."

o0o0o0o

Rose made her way through the Leaky Cauldron after apperating into a nearby alleyway. She headed down Diagon Alley past the many Hogwarts students looking to buy things they were unable too at Hogwarts and entered Ollivanders Fine Wands.

"Ms Potter, I wasn't expecting you today," said Mr Ollivander from his usual dark corner, waiting to ambush unsuspecting customers. "I do hope you're not here to get a replacement wand because you broke your original."

"I'm not, Mr Ollivander," replied Rose. "I actually have a few questions related to wands I was hoping you would be able to answer."

"That I can do, young lady," he answered. "Fire away."

"Well – firstly – I was hoping you knew how the Trace worked."

"You're certainly not the first young witch or wizard to come in here and ask that," he said. "The Ministry would make my life a bit more difficult if I told you."

Rose opened her mouth to say something to convince Mr Ollivander otherwise before he continued.

"But – if you were to suggest a theory I wouldn't mind confirming or disproving it," he said with a small and innocently creepy smile. "After all that wouldn't be me telling you how they do it."

Rose thought and compiled her current prevailing theory in her mind before talking.

"There are two parts to the trace – I think anyway, based on my own experiences," she explained. "The first part is some sort of charm on each wand sold to an underage witch or wizard that is designed to break based on the owner's birthdate. But that wouldn't detect underage magic if they used an adult witch or wizard's wand; either by buying a second hand wand, inheriting one, or possibly stealing one, nor would it detect wandless or accidental magic. I guess then they have some sort of magical detection system around the homes of muggleborn and muggle raised children that detects that – it would explain how I was framed for a house elf's magic, but wouldn't explain why subsequent house elf magic hasn't been detected."

Mr Ollivander merely smiled at her.

"I was close?" she asked with surprise.

"Yes, very close in fact," he said. "Each wand does in fact have a charm on it that reports underage magic, designed to break when the person who purchased it reaches seventeen. I have to file paperwork for every wand sold to a child with the Improper Use of Magic Office which includes the wands signature. The charm is designed to break around the purchasers seventeenth birthday – though it's not that precise, it may be off by several months so if a warning comes in after you're seventeenth they ignore it. The second part is quite accurate; muggleborn and muggleraised have special detection wards near their homes that go off if only one magical signature is detected while magic is performed. If more than one signature is present they assume someone else is there that is performing the magic. That ward is used to detect wandless, unregistered wand and accidental magic."

"Good guess I think on my part."

"It's not hard to guess if you have several varied examples to base a theory off," said Mr Ollivander.

"My second question; are you allowed to own more than one wand?"

Mr Ollivander looked uneasily at this.

"Why would you want an extra wand?" he asked.

"You never know – you could accidentally break it or it could be stolen," answered Rose, thinking back (or possibly forward) to when Crouch Jnr stole her wand and when Hermione accidentally broke it.

"Hmm," he hummed gazing at her curiously before deciding to answer her. "Very well… Normally you can't _carry_ more than one wand. If you're caught carrying more than one they'll snap both – forcing you to buy a new one – and slap you with a considerable fine. Though there are a few exemptions; Aurors of course can, Heads of Ancient or Nobel Houses can too, you can also get a special licence for it as well but it's not easy to get without the right connections."

"And owning more than one?" she asked.

"Well many people inherit old wands and keep them around, rather than throwing them out, though they don't use them. Most people just buy a new one if they need it, most people only have one they use and see owning more than one for use as nefarious."

Rose left Ollivanders at his suspicions and headed towards the Leaky Cauldron for lunch and her appointment with the Mind Healer.

"Ms Potter!" said Tom the barman jovially. "What can I get you? Some lunch?"

"I think so, Tom," she replied taking a seat at the bar. "Can I get a private room for a few hours as well? I have a meeting with someone."

"Can do, do you want to eat it in the room?"

Rose agreed, paid him for the meal and room, and followed Tom upstairs with the lunch of fish and chips. It wasn't long after her meal that there was a knock on the door.

"Healer Claude, I presume?" asked Rose as Tom shuffled back off downstairs.

"That's correct, Ms Potter," she the tall woman with black hair and blue eyes before Rose gestured to her to a seat to take. "I need my pay up front before we begin."

The Healer accepted a bank transfer for three hours work before Rose jumped in.

"I was given some information by a trusted source that I had been obliviated a few times before having several compulsion charms cast on me," she said before taking a deep breath. "I would like it reversed and the compulsions removed. Oh – and they were applied by a very talented legilimens."

The Healer gazed carefully at Rose for several seconds before speaking.

"Very well, do you have any timeframe for when they were cast? It would help in tracking them down."

"The obliviations happened a year ago give or take a few weeks, and just before last Christmas" Rose replied. "The compulsions would have happened over the last three years. I'm not sure when exactly – but I expect some are near the obliviations."

"Do you understand the process involved in this?" asked the Healer.

"I understand that mind charms cast with legilimency are more difficult to remove than charms cast simple at a person, requiring you to get inside the persons mind to track them down and remove them."

"A simple explanation, but correct enough for someone without training in the mind arts," she confirmed. "I should be able to at least remove the obliviations and most of the compulsions today, depending on how many there are."

Rose nodded understandably; after all there might be hundreds of them on her.

"So it's as simple as just removing them?" asked Rose.

"Depends how deeply they're buried," she answered, thinking how to describe it. "Think of your mind like a solid object with a marble stuck inside of it. If you somehow removed it there would still be the cavity inside, ultimately changing nothing. Your deep subconscious is somewhat like a near solid object that will take a long time to fill in those 'voids' left over by the compulsions. We can speed it along though, repairing them. It really depends on how much time the person who applied them had – planting magic very deep in the mind is tricky, taking lots of time to get right.

"Alright," said Rose. "When do we start?"

"I'd like to do a general check-up first," said Healer Claude. "It may make it easier for us later on if we find something easily fixed early on. You should also take the flushing potion when we're done so it doesn't interfere with my work."

"Do I need to lie down?"

"No, just relax and sit still."

Rose sat back in her chair and did her best to relax and not fidget as the healer mumbled a large string of charms while waving her wand and making notes on a conjured slip of parchment. After several minutes she finished, told Rose she could move again and sat down.

"Firstly," she said after getting comfortable. "You definitely have something magical in your bloodstream; I can't tell what it is here though without drawing some and doing some tests. Secondly that scar has me concerned; have you ever had any tests one on it?"

"No," said Rose with a scowl. "I've been in the Hospital Wing enough though that I'd expect Madam Pomfrey has looked at it."

"While I'm sure Pomfrey is very talented at her job she is only a Mediwitch, not a Healer. She's really only trained to treat small injuries and the immediate effects of major injuries – the idea being she would pass on major injuries to St Mungo's and their fully qualified Healers. It's most likely she assumes someone else has seen to it – not to mention the diagnostics are way outside the training a Mediwitch or wizard receives."

"Hmm," hummed Rose before realising something very important. "Uh – how does confidentiality work here? Last time someone used legilimency on me they saw loads of my memories – are you bound by something to not disclose what you see?"

The healer narrowed her eyes at the words 'last time' before dismissing it as probably not as bad as obliviating a child.

"Part of my employment with Gringotts involved taking an Unbreakable Vow not to disclose a wide range of classified information – as this is a job awarded to me by Gringotts it falls under that vow. Either way, I'm not trying to sift through your memories like I imagine the person who performed legilimency on you did, I'm looking for charms in your subconscious – If I do look at your memories then I've made a mistake; except the bits I'm unblocking that is."

Rose frowned, trying to decide how comfortable she was with the Healer seeing these memories.

"Don't want me seeing them?"

"I was obliviated because someone didn't approve of my – uh – relationship with someone."

The healer merely raised an eyebrow.

"So its kind've personal and somewhat intimate…"

"Graphic?"

"Not that far – I think…" replied Rose with a slight blush.

"You're paying me by the hour," said the Healer in reminder.

"Let's get on with it then," said Rose.

"Focus on the time period when the obliviations happened, we'll start with the most recent. Don't try to resist the probe and keep looking straight into my eyes – otherwise you'll make this difficult for me," said Claude before raising her wand at Rose's head and muttering. "_Legilimens!"_

Rose's emerald eyes locked with the blue eyes of the healer, resisting the urge to look away as she felt the presence in her mind. Momentarily forgetting, she focused on the memories she remembered around the time of the obliviation.

o0o0o0o

It took nearly thirty painstaking minutes to remove both obliviations.

"Albus bloody Dumbledore," muttered Healer Claude under her breath. "So called Leader of the Light obliviating children."

Rose gave her a weak smile, trying to stop her eyes from watering at the sadness that several sweet and beautiful memories had been stolen from her.

'Two first kisses stolen!' she thought, trying to regain composure as she paced back and forth, wearing a trail on the carpet. 'If they're all going to be like that then Hermione is quite the drug though!'

After several minutes she managed to regain the lost composure and sat down opposite Healer Claude again.

"Well, now that you're ready, let's continue," she said. "Do you have any better ideas as to when the compulsion charms were added? I noticed some near the obliviations; they seemed to encourage you to think of that girl – uh, Hermione – in a sisterly manner. There also seems to be a compulsion charm added around the time of the first obliviation that is supposed to discourage you from thinking too much about something dark and damp, and what something that made me think 'basilisk'."

Rose pondered and though hard what the purpose of the compulsion charm was, clearly it had something to do with the Chamber but she was sure what, until.

"Ugh," she though as she tried to concentrate on it, every time she did a voice in her said told her it wasn't worth worrying about. "I think – that maybe – it had something to do with not further exploring the Chamber – but – but – there could have been anything down there! Rare books or maybe one of those damn _things!_"

"If you're aware of what the compulsion is encouraging then it's easier to avoid, though it won't stop nagging until it's removed and patched up," said the Healer in much confusion. "May I ask about this Chamber?"

"Oh yea," answered Rose. "I keep forgetting it was covered up. Did you hear about what happened at Hogwarts the year before last? Rumours maybe?"

"I heard rumours at the hospital that Pomfrey was making discrete enquiries about obtaining mandrakes and something about a few students being injured by a rampaging animal… No – a basilisk? And they kept the school open?"

"Yea, and it wasn't a small one either," said Rose, happy the Healer caught on so quickly. "It was easily sixty feet long, a good three or four foot wide in the middle, probably weighed five or so tonnes – maybe a record for biggest basilisk in history."

Healer Claude somehow managed to pale more despite already being very pale.

"How could they even think to keep that school open?" she sputtered. "I'm glad I went to Beaubaxons if that was Hogwarts!"

"Yep," stated Rose simply before continuing to talk, slightly strained. "I think the compulsion is to discourage me from exploring the Chamber where the basilisk came from further. There were probably valuable items down there like books and probably the basilisk itself."

"The way you have trouble even saying it would suggest so," replied the Healer before frowning. "You speak of this Chamber – a chamber containing a record basilisk – like you're intimately familiar with it."

"Well, I am," she replied with a very twisted and strained smile. "I – uh – _killed_ it. Got myself bitten too," she said as the healer paled again yet still looked sceptical. "I only survived through sheer bloody luck. Dumbledore's phoenix is what saved me."

Rose pulled back her sleeve and showed of the matted scar on her arm, showing were a fang went right though – and not in a terribly clean manner.

"You can glance at the memories surround it if you want while you're removing the compulsions," she continued before adding an afterthought. "Check around September of ninety-one for some compulsions."

o0o0o0o

Another hour later, with some time on the clock, they finished removing half a dozen different compulsions; several of which were designed to make Rose look up to Dumbledore, distrust Slytherins, see Hermione as a sister, discourage interest in family history, and not think too much about Ginny's ordeal with the Chamber.

Healer Janice Claude – having taken a peek at the memory of the basilisk – looked incredibly pale; horrified at the thought a small child had killed that beast and concerned for the young girl who had been possessed.

"Did that young red-head see anyone after the possession?" she asked.

"I don't think so, especially if I was given a compulsion not to think too much about it," she replied, a crease in her brow. "Several other probably got one too, like her brother and parents."

The healer made a nearly silent huff at this before Rose cut in.

"Are you able to work on her? Ever dealt with possession?" she asked.

"Not many people have dealt with possession," she said uneasily. "Very dark, very dangerous; not many people attempt it so you rarely need to heal it."

"Would there be someone better suited to it?"

"Not likely," she said, leaning back in her chair. "Very few healers in Europe would have dealt with it – as I said, very few people attempt possession; even less able to speak English which is pretty much a requirement for successful mind healing – it's very hard to navigate a mind in a language you cannot understand."

Rose nodded in understanding.

"I'll contact you then when I can arrange something. Ginny's parents are Dumbledore sycophants though so we'll have to work around that. Will it be a problem?" she asked, eyeing the healer cautiously.

"I do what's right, not what's legal – provided I get paid of course."

"Nice to hear," commented Rose. "Are you available tomorrow? I would like Hermione to get her memories back soon."

o0o0o0o

Rose arrived back at Number Four after having Healer Claude take some blood drawn to discover exactly what potion Rose was dosed with and taking a flush potion plus a few extra for later.

She immediately set out to write a letter.

_Hermione,_

_I know this seems odd, but do you mind if I bring a St Mungo's Healer with me tomorrow? I've recently discovered I've been obliviated and it would seem you have been too. She was recommended by Gringotts – so she should be trustworthy – and can reverse the obliviations._

_Hope you're well,_

_Love, Rose._

Handing the letter to a jovial and bouncing Dobby she set out to actually start some summer homework – breezing through it with her several years more experience. As it got dark, Dobby popped back with Hermione's affirmative reply so Rose shot a letter off to Healer Claude telling her tomorrows ten-fifteen appointment was on and gave her Hermione's address. Dobby then popped off with the letter.

After finishing her homework she shuffled off to bed.

o0o0o0o

Rose opened this morning's Prophet and smiled.

_Dumbledore's Manipulations – Potter Will Violated!_

_Several weeks ago I received a document claiming to be the Last Will and Testament of James and Lily Potter, parents of the fabled Girl-Who-Lived; Rose Potter. After spending an incredible amount of researching and confirming I can claim without a doubt that the document in question truly is their will._

_For those who don't know, the morning after the downfall of He-Who-Must-Not-Named, Albus Dumbledore, then and current Chief Warlock, sealed the Potter Will, citing the need for secrecy and the need to protect young Rose Potter from harm._

_Before doing so he told the Wizengamot that as a witness to the will, he could carry out the wishes of James and Lily Potter without the need of a public reading._

_Instead, he deliberately violated it. Placing Rose Potter in the care of Lily Potter's sister, Petunia Dursley while the will clearly states that under no circumstances was Rose Potter to go into the care of her sister._

_Furthermore, several of the people listen on the custody list are currently alive and able bodied; including Amelia Bones – head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, and Professor Severus Snape – Potions Master at Hogwarts._

_Madam Bones, when asked about the will and her position as potential guardian of Rose Potter had this to say:_

_"I was unaware I was even on the list … I was never asked to be [Ms Potter's] guardian and never refused the position."_

_Potions Master Snape replied to the question with shock and refused to discuss the matter further._

_At the time of Rose Potter going into the custody of Petunia Dursley, Auror Alice Longbottom was able to care for Rose Potter. Why didn't she receive custody of Rose Potter as was her right as Godmother?_

_The bequeathals section raises further questions; why does Peter Pettigrew – supposedly murdered by Azkaban escapee and Godfather to the Girl-Who-Lived, Sirius Black thirteen years ago – receive a total of 'two knuts and our curse' in the event of their murder by You-Know-Who? Wouldn't such bequest be given to Sirius Black if he was the Potter's Secret Keeper rather than Peter Pettigrew?_

_Clearly something is amiss with the Potter Will. We at the Daily Prophet call upon the Chief Warlock to unseal the will and answer the questions the public demand about our national heroes._

_For the Potter Will in full and information about the Fidelus Charm see Pg 9_

Rose put down the paper giddy that the path to Sirius's freedom was laid before jumping up from the bed, realising she would be late for her day with Hermione if she didn't get moving.

After a very quick shower ("Girl! Get out of there and stop wasting my water!") she dressed in the most flattering clothing she possessed – which wasn't much, something she intended to rectify with Hermione's help today – before make her way off down the street so as not to set off the Ministry sensors when she apparated to near to Hermione's home near Oxford.

Arriving some distance away as not to earn Hermione her own underage magic violation – and possibly an unlicensed apparition fine – she made the walk to Hermione's house. Rose admired the homes in the area; they were slightly higher market than those in Little Whinging but instead of being identical in every way – courtesy of the Home Owners Association – each varied dramatically, making it much more interesting all around less boring suburb.

Reaching Hermione's street and then her house, Rose knocked on the door.

"Rose!" screamed Hermione as she opened the door before jumping of Rose and giving her a very tight hug. She however quickly let go and blushed ever so slightly.

"Hey, Hermione," she said with a smile as Hermione let her in, as she dumped her backpack by the door.

After accepting a drink of sugar-free cola which was apparently Hermione's secret weakness and discovering Hermione's parents were at work, Hermione jumped straight in and asked what was going on.

"Well, I received some credible information from a trusted source…" replied Rose holding up her hand to stall questions about who said trusted source was. "I can't tell you yet Hermione, later. Anyway, I was told that I had been obliviated a few times and had a few compulsion charms placed on me to do certain things."

"Who did it?" asked Hermione.

"You wouldn't believe me if I told you," said Rose to Hermione's slight anger. "You've been obliviated and charmed too, Hermione. The charms would make it difficult for you to believe it."

Hermione calmed down a bit at that, deciding if she was under the influence of a compulsion it was best to wait.

"So this healer is a mind healer? She can remove the compulsion charms? Doesn't it normally only take a simple _Finite Incantatum _to remove them?"

"Normally, yes," answered Rose. "But these were applied with Legilimency, so they can only be removed from the inside by someone well versed in Legilimency."

"I've heard of Legilimency before but the book didn't describe it, it just said it was a part of the mind arts," commented Hermione. "Actually, I've never found anything on the mind arts in the Hogwarts Library, besides vague references to the topics make up the mind arts."

"I can probably explain why later," explained Rose. "But to answer the question; Legilimency is the art of entering another's mind – it's kind've like mind reading but... not, Occlumency is the opposite – the protection of one's mind from external penetration."

"Where did you learn that?"

"I can't – "

" – Tell me right now," finished Hermione. "I get it, I hope to learn soon. When is the Mind Healer getting here?"

"About now – I said Ten-Fifteen; her name is Healer Janice Claude."

Hermione pushed down her _unnatural_ feeling of jealousy at Rose addressing the Healer by her full name as there was a knock at the door. Jumping up she followed Rose to the front door and let the healer in.

"Hermione Granger?" asked the healer with a tiny smirk. "Ms Potter has said much about you."

Hermione blushed slightly.

"I hope it was all nice," she replied.

"It was," said Rose. "But I am paying Healer Claude by the hour so let's get cracking."

"What do I have to do?" asked Hermione, taking a seat on the sofa followed by Rose who sat next to her and Healer Claude who sat opposite.

"Stay calm, looking into her eyes, don't try to force her out of your mind – "

"It's probably best I explained," said the Healer, cutting off Rose. "I need you to focus on the time-period the obliviation happened – the first being just before last Christmas if Ms Potter is anything to go by, then you need to relax and look directly into my eyes. Are you ready?"

"Wait!" said Hermione with worry. "What about you seeing my memories and thoughts?"

"If I'm doing it right the only memories seen will be the ones obliviated, and I'm bound by an Unbreakable Vow to keep them secret."

"It means she'll drop dead if she tries to tell anyone," added Rose nonchalantly.

Hermione nodded at Healer Claude to proceed.

o0o0o0o

One of two obliviations down and Hermione was in Rose's arms crying softly into her shoulder as Rose did her best to sooth her. Clearly trying not to intrude on a private moment, Healer Claude distracted herself by browsing one of the many Granger Family bookshelves, the current bookshelf – as it was in the lounge room – was entirely muggle.

Hermione by now was mumbling 'why?' over and over again into Rose's damp shoulder before eventually hardening her resolve and getting up, hiccupping slightly, asking Healer Claude to get it over with.

After the second obliviation was undone, Hermione simply told the healer to continue her work. An hour later and the healer was finished; having removed several compulsions that increased Hermione's – now shattered – loyalty to Dumbledore, a compulsion that made Hermione hesitant to discuss Rose's family with her and the compulsion that worked on Hermione's fear of her sexuality not fitting-in in Magical Britain.

Healer Claude was quite keen to leave by now, increasingly feeling like she was in Hermione and Rose's way but she still had some information to pass on.

"I had the blood sample you gave me tested and destroyed," she said to Rose's relief – didn't want anyone resurrecting a Dark Lord with it, did we? "Seems you were being dosed with a low strength, but very long lasting apathy potion, it was pretty much designed to stop you from concerning yourself with whoever it was keyed too – presumably Ms Granger here. The potion was a mid-ranged apathy potion; NEWT level – but it doesn't require the more exotic ingredients that some much stronger and difficult to remove apathy potions require."

Rose nodded at that before mouthing 'I'll explain later' to Hermione.

"The flushing potion I gave you will remove it but because of the dosage given you'll need to have another two; one now and one more in twelve hours. I'd recommend Ms Granger get three doses spaced twelve hours apart as well."

Healer Claude billed the Potter Account and left quickly, leaving Rose and Hermione alone.

Sitting slightly apart from each other, neither said anything for several minute before Rose simply patted her hand on her lap, giving Hermione the message.

Hermione Moved and straddled Rose's lap, not sure what to do with her hands as she blushed and nervously bit her lip, doing her best to distract herself by focusing her eyes elsewhere from Rose's own blushing face.

"You – you don't think I'm weird?" asked Hermione, stuttering slightly with nerves.

Rose gave Hermione a small smile, never looking away from her eyes or lips.

"I'd be a bit of a hypocrite, wouldn't I if I did?" she commented as she ran her hands up Hermione's sides, feeling the straps on Hermione's bra.

Hermione seemed to finally decide what she was going to with her hands when she moved them onto Rose's shoulders, moving them up to her neck and occasional running a finger or two up and down it. Rose closed her eyes and simply shuddered in pleasure at the feeling before snapping out of it. She quickly focused on Hermione's moist lips and leaned in excruciatingly slowly, occasionally glancing at Hermione's eyes, seeing that she too was solely focused on the soon-to-be sensual task at hand.

Rose's lips met Hermione's, enabling Rose to taste her. She shuddered again as Hermione multitasked; caressing her hands her neck, making her moan quietly into Hermione's mouth, feeling as if her skin was on fire and that every touch would send her over the edge. Deciding she needed to do something, Rose ran her down Hermione's back, past her waist and grabbed her bum. Rose pulled herself forwards slightly and pulled Hermione into her enabling Hermione to wrap her legs around Rose's waist before Rose leaned back again and did her best to pull Hermione closer to herself, desperately wanting to hold her tightly and feel every bit of Hermione pressed against her.

Rose decided to run her hands up Hermione's sides again only this time she found the hem of Hermione's reasonably tight top, pushing it up slightly so Rose could run her hands up Hermione's sides under it. Hermione gasped as this and broke her kiss with Rose, enabling Rose to run her lips along Hermione's jawline, nibbling along the way before moving down her neck, abandoning the nibbling and doing her best to leave a mark causing Hermione to gasp again.

Hermione's response was to grab Rose's forearms and encourage Rose's hands further up her sides and inwards towards her breasts before moaning in disappointment that she was still wearing a bra. Taking the hint, Rose ran her hands along the bra-straps to Hermione's back, before fumbling with the clip.

'Dammit, Rose, you do up your own bra every day, why is it so hard now?' she thought as she fumbled around, still focusing her lips on Hermione's neck as Hermione withered in Rose's lap.

Suddenly with a sharp knock at the door the pair stiffened. Hermione quickly attempted to untangle her legs from Rose's waist before getting up and attempting to make her way out of the lounge room and into the hallway to answer the door before Rose grabbed Hermione's arm and swung her around to face each other. Before Hermione could question what Rose was doing Rose grabbed the hem of her top and pulled it back down over her breasts and down Hermione's waist, straightening it out.

"Thanks," she mumbled to Rose before Rose gave her a quick kiss on the lips; a bit shocked she was about to answer the door looking like she was halfway through having sex – which was probably correct at the rate things had been going.

"You're welcome, dear," said Rose affectionately, taking the opportunity to give Hermione another peck. "We should probably answer it now we no longer look suspect."

Hermione agreed and lead Rose to the door, to find a reporter wearing jewel studded glasses; Rita Skeeter.

o0o0o0o

Rita jumped when the door opened and Rose Potter was standing there.

"I thought this was Ms Grangers home?" she asked after quickly regaining composure at the sight of her profitable blackmailer.

"It is," said Hermione, poking her head around the doorframe, still rather flushed. "This is my house. Who are you I might ask?"

"Rita Skeeter," said Rose before Rita could answer.

"Aren't you a reporter for the Daily Prophet?" asked Hermione cautiously.

"She is," said Rose as she cut Rita out of the conversation. "But I have a deal with her. In fact I was hoping you might be able to do a short interview with her."

Rose framed her request with an adorable pout that she hoped Hermione couldn't say no too.

"On what?" she asked.

"Meeting Sirius, the Shrieking Shack, etcetera," answered Rose offhandedly, deciding she'd have to experiment with expressions that Hermione couldn't resist.

"Uh, what about it?" asked Hermione curiously.

"Think about it; Dumbledore – one of the two most politically powerful people in Britain – somehow can't get Sirius a trial."

"You think something's up?" she asked grimly before her eyes went wide. "After what I've learnt today I wouldn't put it past him."

"Without a doubt."

"What did you learn today?" asked Rita excitedly as she withdrew some parchment and her Quick-Quotes-Quill. A sharp look from Rose had her putting it back and withdrawing a Dicta-Quill instead.

"I'm not sure we want it public right now," said Hermione, glancing at Rose nervously.

"Agreed," said Rose. "And it's not all that controversial compared to other things you've learnt."

Rita sighed before talking.

"Can I come in?" she asked.

Hermione led her though to the lounge room as Rose stopped to retrieve today's paper from her bag.

"Hermione, you should read today's paper," said Rose as she dropped it on Hermione's lap. "Rita's first article – getting the ball rolling and hopefully will get Sirius a trial."

Hermione read the article, and after asking Rose if the Will was real – which to Hermione's anger it was, agreed to the interview.

o0o0o0o

The pair finally managed to kick Rita out after the interview with promises that Hermione would forward her medical records from the night in question to her. They headed to the lounge room again and took a seat each; Hermione not daring to sit near Rose as she didn't trust herself or Rose to be able to have a proper intimacy free conversation.

"About earlier – " said Hermione.

"We went a bit too fast," said Rose cutting in to which Hermione nodded. "I enjoyed it though."

"I did too," said Hermione, the memory making her feel rather hot and gooey. "I think if we weren't interrupted we might have ended up going all the way."

Rose gave Hermione a small chuckle.

"Yea, we would have," she said with a smile. "I'm not sure I would have minded though."

"Strangely; me too," replied Hermione. "But I would be a bit annoyed I couldn't control myself."

"Have to prove it's you who wants to do it and not your hormones?"

Hermione nodded as Rose got up and walked towards her. She handed Hermione a hand before pulling her up and giving her a hug.

"Hermione," Rose whispered into her ear. "I-I have no doubts I love you – certainly as a friend and it-it won't take me very long to love you more than that."

Hermione gave Rose a squeeze before responding.

"I love you too."

o0o0o0o

After holding each other for several minutes, interrupted occasionally by a chaste kiss – or at least what passes for chaste compared to earlier, the pair took a spot on the couch next to each other, hands intertwined.

"So Rose," started Hermione. "What is going on?"

"Well," replied Rose nervously. "There really is no easy way to say it so I'll just go and say it; I died, and then time-travelled – actually, I died quite a few times…"

* * *

**A cliffhanger!**

**Thanks for reading so far. Please favourite, follow and review.**

**I chose to make things difficult. In many stories, people can simply fix everything by simply casting a spell. 'Oh no, you've been horribly cursed! Oh actually dw, I can heal it with a single spell in five seconds!" It makes solving problems way too easy, so I descided that to properly apply mind charms you can use legilimency, requiring hard work and sifting through the mind to undo. I'll probably do something similar with quite a few things, forcing people to use more than just magic (like brains and logic) to solve problems**

**Now, some of you may have picked up on Sirius and his use of ****_Finite Incantatum_****. I'm assuming that in the very short amount of time Dumbledore had with Sirius while he was locked up in whatever tower it was wasn't long enough to do a proper job with the compulsion charm that encouraged him to leave the country, so he took the risk and used a normal compulsion charm - assuming that no-one would be around to accidentally undo it with Finite Incantatum, so he was wrong.**

**What you saw here is about the limit of what I'll write graphically in this story. The characters will be having sex at some point but I won't be writing it, use your filthy imagination instead. On that note, do I need to increase the rating? I persoanlly think this is T rated but I guess other will have differing opinions on the matter.**

**I justified how far Rose and Hermione went here by both being - currently - very vulnerable. Both just had a whole heap of shit thrown on them showing people they trusted. Rose was practically raped with love potions and desperately wants to feel pleasure that has nothing to do with Ron Weasley, while Hermione has had her worldview of the illustrious headmaster ground to dust and - well - Hermione was never shown as being made of particularly strong stuff in canon compared to Harry so it hits pretty hard.**

**I really would like some feedback on my proto-lemon. This is the first time I've ever written something like this and it took a good two hours just to write the lemon-like bit (It's less than eight-hundred words!). I also would like feedback on Hermione and Rose's interactions.**

**Again, thanks for reading.**

**A/N - I fixed the typos I could find**

**A/N 2 - I thought I should mention money. I've been having Rose comment on how much something is in pounds so people get a feel for something being cheap or expensive.**

**In canon, people buy things like Butterbeer for a few Sickles. If a Galleon was only worth 5 Pounds or so then everything is ridiculously cheap. I decided the Galleon is a very small gold coloured coin with a weight in the range of 1/12 of an an ounce, made of a 50/25/25 gold/silver/copper mix - A pure gold coin is unrealistic. A coin containing 1/24th of an ounce of gold would have a metal value in the ten to fifteen pound range in the mid nineties. No one would sell coins at face value if the metal value was several time higher**


	4. - My Dangerous Life at Hogwarts

**Chapter 4 is up**

**I know I said UE was next or maybe RotI, but I was on a roll and felt like getting this out so I did.**

**I'll be honest, I don't like this chapter very much. It rehashes everything from chapter one but I needed it so I could portray Hermione's thoughts on the whole dying and time-travel thing while also covering the slight changes to canon because of the gender switch. Hopefully it includes some new information and Hermione's thoughts on the matter should be interesting.**

**I originally wrote this as one massive block of text but found it was way too long (like 10k too long, 4k more than my usual 6k chapter length for this story) so I cut out huge chunks of text I thought didn't include any new information.**

**Once again, sorry that this chapter is two girls on a couch - who don't have sex.**

* * *

**Last Chance, Miss Potter**

**Chapter Four:**

**My Dangerous Life at Hogwarts**

"Quite a few times?" asked Hermione with confusion.

"I was seventeen and – well I wouldn't say I was _fighting_ Voldemort – he just killed me," replied Rose lamely.

Hermione merely gazed eyes wide at Rose. Seeing as she wasn't going to interrupt, Rose continued.

"I woke up _somewhere_ and was told I dead but not-dead," continued Rose, feeling rather stupid at the description. "I was then told I had a destiny and that people who have destinies get a few lives to complete said destiny but I'd fucked up pretty badly and I was on my last chance."

"How many times?" asked Hermione, completely ignoring Rose's use of foul language

"Sixteen…" replied Rose, still a bit nervous. "Apparently – depending on how important your destiny is – you get a set number of lives. I am allowed to die up to sixteen times for a total of seventeen lives and I'm on my very last."

Hermione closed her eyes, grabbed her own head with both hands and gave it a little shake before letting go and opening her eyes again.

"Ok," she said, spotting Rose sitting next to her. "I'm not dreaming, I am sitting next to my best friend who's now my girlfriend, who I just confessed my love too; kissed and then nearly had sex with, _and_ she just told me she had died several times."

"I better be your girlfriend after all that," said Rose cheekily to which Hermione gave her a hard hit on the shoulder

"And I am yours," she replied, dropping the seriousness before kissing Rose again.

They continued kissing each other for several seconds before Rose broke the kiss.

"We probably need to stop that there before we go too far again and we forget the discussion we're supposed to be having," said Rose with a small smile.

"Yes," she replied, nervously straightening her top out and fighting to regain control of her body.

"If I can make you do that then I'm really going to enjoy this," said Rose with a smirk, making Hermione loose the semblance of control she had gained as the blush creeped back into her face. "Now, as I was saying; I died, woke up in limbo – or something – and was told a few interesting facts about my life by my Grim Reaper – pretty much all of them revolving around Dumbledore the Manipulator."

Hermione gave a very weak, nervous smile.

"I kept telling myself that ever since the Stone," she said. "But every time I thought how strange each dangerous adventure we end up on was, a small voice in the back of my head would tell me I'm being paranoid and to trust the headmaster – I guess it was the compulsions."

"It must have been," answered Rose. "Anyway – do you want me to list them?"

Hermione nodded with a slight amount of fear.

"Starting way back before I was born," started Rose. "Did you ever wonder why my family was attacked?"

"The history books said your parents were both very powerful and very talented, and that both worked with Dumbledore against You-Know-Who, making your whole family a target."

"And that's partially true – that alone was enough for Voldemort to want to kill us," said uneasily. "But it wasn't why he was there in Godric's Hollow on that Halloween – he had heard a prophecy."

"He believed that?" exclaimed Hermione, her well founded dislike of seers and prophecy coming to the surface.

"Apparently he didn't," said Rose before raising her hand and cutting off Hermione's eventual question. "But he was never one to take risks. He saw it as a chance to both dispose of my parents and dispose of a prophecy – just in case it was true."

"Where did he hear the prophecy?" asked Hermione.

"I'm getting to that," said Rose. "The prophecy was told by Trelawney – "

"That old fraud?" exclaimed Hermione.

"Yes, that old fraud, but – well – the prophecy is apparently true. Seems prophecy is the only thing she can get right," said Rose. "Dumbledore was there when she spoke it and understood the significance. The prophecy basically said that someone matching both my description and another child description had the power to kill Voldemort – the most important part though is that if Dumbledore had swept the prophecy under the rug, it would never have come into play – worse still, he forced it into play."

"How?" asked Hermione quickly.

"I don't know exactly but I'd guess that Trelawney – who was looking for a job at the time – had her first interview with Dumbledore Obliviated, he then arranged a second in a new location, invited a Deatheater along under the pretence of giving him a job, cast the Imperius Curse on her and made her recite the prophecy."

"The Imperius Curse? Are you sure? He could have ended up in Azkaban for that!"

"Is it really that hard to believe?" asked Rose. "It _is_ an incredibly useful curse, Hermione. Aurors in the last war were allowed to use it against Deatheaters – along with the rest of the Unforgivables. I used it in the Second War – "

"Rose, you didn't!" cried Hermione.

"I did," she replied before seeing Hermione's discomfort. "He was an inner-circle Deatheater, Hermione, a man who had probably killed and raped dozens of people; the alternative would have been we died."

Hermione didn't say anything, an internal conflict waging, so Rose took the opportunity to continue.

"Carrying on," said Rose a bit unhappily. "The prophecy Trelawney spoke was incomplete, it lacked the last part that would suggest Voldemort would lose his first battle with the 'Chosen One', so he started tracking both of us down to kill us."

"Who was the other?" asked Hermione curiously.

"Neville."

"Oh," said Hermione with surprise.

"Yea, kind've unexpected," said Rose before taking a breath and continuing. "Back to the Deatheater who told Voldemort about the prophecy though; it was Snape."

"Professor Snape?" she asked.

"The one and only," replied Rose. "Once Snape told Voldemort and realised one of the people Voldemort thought was the 'One' was me he feared for my mother's life – turns out that Snape and my mum were best friends since before Hogwarts, up to the end of their fifth year at Hogwarts. Once he realised my mother was targeted he approached Dumbledore and did his heal-faced-turn, becoming a spy for the Order – "

"Order?"

"The Order of the Phoenix," answered Rose. "Dumbledore's paramilitary-vigilante organisation that fought Voldemort."

"The history books never named it, just said it was people who fought alongside Dumbledore."

"Yea, well, they're still pretty secretive," replied Rose. "Anyway, once that happened, Snape approached my mum – who was in the Order alongside Dad, Sirius, Remus, that traitorous little Rat, Neville's parents, Moody, McGonagall, Mrs Wealsey's brothers and a few others – and apologised for everything; starting with fucking up their friendship to becoming a Deatheater, he even managed to make peace with Sirius and my dad despite them being bitter enemies throughout school."

"So they became friends again?"

"It would seem so, he does get a few things in my parent's will and was even on the guardianship list."

"Snape as your guardian; that would be _interesting,_" said Hermione, sceptically stressing 'interesting.'

"It will make a bit more sense in a bit," said Rose, waving the comment off. "Now, when it came to my parent's secret keeper I suspect Dumbledore suggested Peter – at the very least he would have known peter was a traitor; he was a master legilimens who casually uses his ability on everyone, he would have picked it up so at the very least he's guilty of not doing anything about it."

Rose gave a sad sigh.

"Now we get to _that_ night. Dumbldore arranged for me to be dumped on the door of my Aunt and Uncle's in the dead of night, and then proclaims to the world that Sirius was the secret keeper, creating a manhunt for him. He then seals my parents will, makes sure any guardian on the list is unaware they're on it – probably with a few Obliviations, and then gains custody for himself."

"Why did he need to control you like that?" asked Hermione.

"Apparently he wanted me in a crappy environment to mould me into a little hero that would save the magical world as he knew Voldemort wasn't dead and the prophecy still needed to play out," she replied. "Not long after, Sirius is framed perfectly and it fit in perfectly with what Dumbledore has been proclaiming; that Sirius was a Deatheater – Dumbldore probably then encouraged Crouch, who was head of the DMLE at the time, to forgo a trial as it's plainly obvious he's guilty."

"He never got a trial?" exclaimed Hermione, again.

"Yep, even the Lestrange's got trials – and Bellatrix was a fucking psycho – though that was probably because Crouch's own son was caught with them."

"Crouch's son was a Deatheater?"

"He still is."

o0o0o0o

"So Dumbledore split us up because he wouldn't be able to control you, not because it was a gay relationship?" asked Hermione with some desperation, her insecurities playing up.

"Oh no, being gay is a part of it – though he would have had control issues with us – no, a gay heroine, saviour of the wizarding world, and well known political figure would have sent his more neutral political allies away in droves and even some of his 'light' allies."

"Bloody politics, that's all it was?" cried Hermione as Rose grabbed her in a hug, giving Hermione a few minutes.

"So, we know why Dumbledore did it, and why Ron did," continued Rose. "Now we have Molly. You haven't seen it yet as you haven't stayed with her for any serious length of time, but she has quite the thing for children – it explains why she had some many kids to begin with. Last time around she kept badgering Bill and Charlie – Ginny's older brothers," she said, Hermione noticing the use of Ginny rather than Ron. "To settle down, have a quiet life and start a family – Bill eventually did but Molly spent a year sulking that he'd chosen a French Veela instead of a 'Proper English Woman' and spent that time implying – but not outright saying – that she was a tart or a whore or something."

"She's obsessed with having a huge family," finished Hermione as Rose moved closer and held her. "Is it just Ron and Her? I hope it's just them, not sure I could lose Ginny's friendship too."

"My Grim Reaper described her as delusional, and thankfully it's just them."

"I don't think I'll be getting used to that," said Hermione.

"It is odd," replied Rose. "Having met Death… Either way, I was saying; So I arrive at Nine and Three Quarters, meet Molly Weasley who's running around Kings Cross talking about muggles and Hogwarts at the top of her voice, just after Hagrid has forgotten to tell me how to get onto the platform – a few Galleons says it was a compulsion charm – and she shows me through. As the train leaves, Ron shows up in my compartment and my friend-deprived self immediately latches onto as my first 'friend' my own age – after Hagrid."

"A setup."

"Of course," replied Rose with a friendly eye roll.

"The Stone was ridiculous," stated Hermione. "Three first years made it past the puzzles!"

"Yea, on top of people leaving clues about it everywhere."

"Why though?"

"A few reasons maybe," answered Rose. "Getting us used to danger maybe? Crafting little heroes? He may even have tried to force the Prophecy to a conclusion."

"What bugs me is that the other teachers went along with the weak puzzles," said Hermione. "They would have noticed they were too easy."

"Yea," mused Rose. "Maybe Dumbledore modified them afterwards? I mean, why would Flitwick leave the key to the door in the same room as the door? Why not leave it in his office or even Dumbledore's office? Why would Snape leave the potion that allows you past in the same room as his charmed fire?"

"They must have been modified," stated Hermione with certainty. "Let me guess; Sprouts trap – rather than puzzle – was originally some sort of plant that poisons or paralyses on contact. Devil's Snare is only really dangerous to those who know little about them – it might have been Devil's Snare crossed with something very nasty. Flitwick's…"

"Probably a door charmed and cursed to Hell and back with the key given to Dumbledore," suggested Rose.

"Maybe McGonagall's was a room full of statues that attacked on sight unless you did something."

"Would explain why she snubbed us when we told her the Stone was threatened."

"It would," replied Hermione. "I can't think of what Quirrel's would have been, unless he deliberately made it easy."

"Trolls really aren't much of a match for a reasonably powerful witch or wizard."

"Dumbledore probably just didn't object when he suggested it," suggested Hermione. "Snape's challenge…"

"Exactly the same except every vial was poison," suggested Rose as Hermione gave her a look. "It's something he'd do."

Hermione said nothing for a second before frowning and agreeing.

"He – probably would."

Rose nodded to her with a self-satisfied smirk.

"So out of that only Fluffy and the mirror were unchanged?"

"I'd guess so," replied Rose. "We could ask the teachers – assuming they haven't been Obliviated."

"We'll try. So, second year?"

"Dumbledore, nearly all of the teachers and even some of the upper years should have been able to figure it out," mused Rose. "Compulsion charms for the teachers, Obliviations for any students who figured it out."

"If they did figure it out they might have borrowed a book on the topic – like the book I found the basilisk in – maybe check the borrowing records at the start of term," suggested Hermione.

"Add it to the list. We tried to date and got Obliviated and dosed with Apathy Potion for the trouble," said Rose. "Third year; one of the most influential and powerful wizards in Britain – If not the world – and he can't get Sirius a trial."

"On to the future information?" asked Hermione with some unhidden glee, after all, its knowledge. "Oh and don't forget, Obliviations and dosing."

"Yes, dear," she said, rolling her eyes before Hermione gave her a short but passionate kiss.

"We both get invited to the Burrow and go to the Quidditch World Cup; Ireland wins by ten points – "

"Not important…" said Hermione with exasperation.

"It is, or would – if only I was allowed to use my knowledge to gamble," said Rose as Hermione raised her eyebrows inquisitively. "Afterwards, a few drunken 'Imperuised' Deatheaters get drunk and decide to have a little fun, harassing some nearby muggles. Another Deatheater – the supposedly dead Barty Crouch Jnr – casts the Dark Mark into the sky, causing the Deatheaters to flee. Junior is still thought to be dead and the blame is placed on a house elf."

"A house elf? Why?" asked Hermione with concern.

"Because its job was to keep Junior under control – Senior Crouch broken his son out of Azkaban per his dying wife's last wish. She took polyjuice potion and took her sons place but Junior was still a loyal Death Eater so crouch kept him Imperuised and under the care of Winky the house elf. She failed so Crouch gave her clothes – well, not officially anyway"

"I hope she was better off without him," said Hermione. "It's wrong to have slaves anyway."

"I'm so glad I'm paying Dobby then," said Rose.

"Dobby?"

"Yea, Dobby works for me now," said Rose. "At the moment all he's doing is relaying messages with people but when we get Grimmauld Place going he'll work there."

"Grimmauld Place?" asked Hermione.

"The Black Family home," said Rose. "We should be able to practice magic there and it has a very large library. But it's a mess and filled with cursed objects, it looks good cleaned up though. I have a meeting with Sirius as soon as he's back in the country – I think Dumbledore put a compulsion on him to leave initially but I'm gambling he didn't have time to do a proper job of it so Sirius should be able to remove it himself."

"Uh-uh."

"Anyway, Peter finds Voldemort's wraith in Albania, gives him a basic body and brings him back to Britain."

Hermione gasped.

"Voldemort comes back soon, doesn't he?" she asked in a slightly frightened tone.

"Less than a year from now, but I'll explain that later I should finish this story," said Rose. "They find Crouch Jnr, free him and Imperurise Senior before going to the home of Alastor Moody and stunning him. Junior – using Polyjiuce – pretends to be Moody and goes off to Hogwarts as the new DADA teacher; somehow Dumbledore misses that a long-time friend is actually an imposter."

"So a Deatheater becomes our new DADA teacher?" asked Hermione.

"Yep," replies Rose. "Still, he was probably one of the best we ever had. Lupin only covered creatures while Moody – or I should say, Junior – covered solely curses. It was a good balance – and I can thank him for now being immune to the Imperius Curse."

"How?" asked Hermione with confusion.

"By being naturally resistant to it and lots of practice – he cast it on everyone; it took a few goes but I was the only who could resist it very quickly."

"That is so illegal," stated Hermione with amazement.

"And I think Dumbledore knew."

Hermione frowned slightly and motioned to continue.

"For the first time in three hundred odd years Hogwarts is hosting the Triwizard Tournament; Crouch will enter my name under a fictitious forth school and force me to compete. Ron will break off his friendship with us, telling anyone who will listen that I entered myself and that I'm a glory-seeking brat," continued Rose.

"He didn't."

"He did," said Rose. "But, with him out of the picture we noticed each other again and tried to date – "

"Before getting Obliviated and dosed?"

"Yea," replied Rose. "Eventually – for some reason – we became friends again after he gave a pretty poor apology."

"Compulsion charms," suggested Hermione with exasperation and a groan. "How do you even function with that many floating through your mind?"

"Your guess is as good as mine," said Rose. "Then there was a disastrous Yule Ball which required me to have a date as I was a Champion. Now I think about it, a guy you had never met before started following you around the Library, Krum may have been dosed with love potion – not to say you aren't good looking, in fact, you're damn stunning, but he _had _never spoken to you before."

"_Krum?_ Who is that?" asked Hermione with surprise. "Did I say yes?"

"Yea, Oh – he's a world famous Quidditch star" said Rose to Hermione's shock before musing. "It might have been the compulsions, encouraging you to try and fit it when you said yes but I think he was definitely dosed."

"Who did you go with?"

"I had guys throwing themselves at me but I was never interested. I now know why they never felt right," she said with a small smirk before giving Hermione a quick peck. "Eventually after being reminded by McGonagall that I must have a date I eventually accepted the first guy who asked me… Which was Neville, after you turned him down."

"Neville?" said Hermione before giving a small giggle. "He's nice and all but submission really isn't all that attractive."

"Yea, it really didn't work – thankfully we only did the required one dance and spent the night lounging around while Ron moaned about how you were a traitor for going out with the competition – did I mention he was the Dumstrang Champion?"

Hermione shook her head.

"Yea," said Rose. "Well, Ron asked you out the night before the dance to which you said no – I suspect it was his mother's suggestion to ask you in an attempt to snag me by making me jealous; once you said no he moped around before asking me. I obviously said no causing him to fume and rant for the rest of the night but next morning he was perfectly fine; choosing to complain about you instead."

"Why are we friends with him I wonder…" mused Hermione.

"I'm not anymore," said Rose with a growl, startling Hermione.

"You alright?" asked Hermione with concern.

Rose gave a small huff before speaking.

"It's best I tell it in order, rather than jumping around," she replied solemnly.

Hermione simply gave her a concerned frown as she continued.

"We'll be here forever if I don't speed this up," she said. "The final and third task; I was somehow in the lead as I entered the maze, made it through the traps and finally reached the cup. The cup was supposed to be charmed as a portkey to take you to the judges table when you won; instead when me and the other champion – Cedric Diggory – grabbed the cup it sent us to Voldemort."

Despite knowing he was supposed to be resurrected around that time Hermione gasped.

"Pettigrew killed Cedric and then they used some sort of ritual involving bone of father, flesh of servant and blood of the enemy to give him a more human and permanent body," explained Rose, thinking back with a shudder to the night. "He called his Deatheaters before deciding to duel me to 'prove' I was worthless and that he could kill me.

"How did you escape?" asked Hermione.

"Not by any skill," replied Rose shakily. "Luck was the only thing that saved me. It was luck that the cup had been charmed by someone else other than Crouch Junior who placed it in the maze before charming it himself. Once the portkey he charmed it with was used the previous one designed to take you to the judges table was active. I grabbed it and Cedric's body and rode it back to Hogwarts."

Hermione grabbed Rose in a hug and held her, feeling as if she could just release it. Rose eventually decided to have her eventual breakdown when she finished and staved it off.

"When I got back, Dumbledore pretty much jumped on Minister Fudge and told him that Voldemort had returned and that he should start preparing," continued Rose. "Fudge didn't want to believe it but instead of withdrawing and convincing him with evidence or just generally being cautious, Dumbledore just got louder and louder making the Minister think Dumbledore was losing his marbles and trying to incite revolution, starting a yearlong smear campaign – not just against Dumbledore – but me too. While this happened, Voldemort's forces grew in secret."

"Was Dumbledore just stupid or was it intentional?" asked Hermione with amazement of this stupidity.

"Morta," she replied before seeing Hermione's confusion. "My Grim Reaper – suggested that Dumbledore wanted extra time to 'save' Deatheaters and convert them to the light or something. My thought is he has always gotten his own way all the time – people have been listening to him for years – that he didn't expect the Minister who's being going to him for advice for years to defy him. Either way, it's all the same; nobody believes Voldemort is back as Fudge slashes the Auror Corps budget."

"It doesn't go well, does it?" asked Hermione, fearing the worst.

"It doesn't, no," she replies. "Fifth year was bad though; everywhere I went people thought I was a nutter, while Fudge strongarmed a bill through the Wizengamot enabling him to place Delores Unbridge as the new DADA teacher. That woman is one nasty piece of work – after the Ministry fell under Voldemort she became his Joseph Goebbels, sending muggleborns to Azkaban and God-knows-where for 'stealing' magic – I don't know how many died under her orders."

Hermione simply gave Rose a look of shock before Rose took her hand.

"It won't happen, Hermione," she whispered. "Not this time."

Trusting her and calming down, Rose continued.

"She spent the year teaching us 'defensive' theory that consisted of 'if you see something bad, go to the Ministry for help'. Not once did we learn a spell from her," she said to Hermione's slight gasp. "So we formed our own defence club and taught anyone who wanted to learn in secret. There I met a fourth-year Ravenclaw girl by the name of Luna Lovegood."

"Her name rings a bell; Ginny's mentioned her."

"Yea, she's one of Ginny's friends," said Rose. "She's had a horrible life though; she saw her own mother die in front her in an accident when she was nine and most of the Ravenclaws tease and harass her because she's a bit odd."

"I've heard she's more than a bit, Rose," said Hermione with a frown.

"Most of it I think is artificial; I think her oddities are a defence mechanism to keep people who bully and such away. Once you get to know her she drops – or at least reduces – her talks of strange creatures. Anyway; we started dating – "

"Before being Obliviated and dosed," finished Hermione. "This is becoming quite the recurring pattern."

"Yea," said Rose. "Anyway, I may not remember my time with Luna but she was always very adorable and quite cute – once she got rid of those strange earing – so I assume what we did have was nice."

Hermione could feel jealousy inside her at that but pushed it away as Rose came to her first and came back time and time again; she wasn't going to run off with Luna now.

"I spent the year getting visions though my scar of what Voldemort was upto, eventually I got one that told me Sirius was being tortured in the Department of Mysteries in the Ministry so me, you, Ginny, Luna, Neville and Ron went there to save him. In hindsight it was amazingly stupid of us; the whole bloody thing as a trap and Sirius was no-where to be found – I don't want to say where we went wrong but it was on so many levels it was a miracle none of us were killed. The Deatheaters there demanded I retrieve a prophecy for them and we scattered. The Order later came to rescue us and Sirius came along with them; he was duelling Bellatrix Lestrange and got a bit cocky enabling her to get one in and she killed him

Rose did the best to control herself as Hermione grabbed her in hug while she told herself over and over again to bottle it up for now, she need to finish this.

"I chased her through to the Atrium of the Ministry and cast the Curciatus Curse on her."

o0o0o0o

"How can you have a _piece_ of a soul?" asked Hermione with both disgust and amazement. "That can't be right."

"It's not, you're not supposed to split your soul," replied Rose. "Each time you do you become more unstable and less human, each time you do it you must commit cold blooded murder. Voldemort has done it six times deliberately and a seventh unknowingly."

Hermione paled at the implications.

"Thankfully, one is already destroyed," continued Rose. "The one Voldemort handed to Lucius Malfoy for safekeeping…"

"The diary!" exclaimed Hermione. "That book held a piece of Voldemort?"

Rose nodded as Hermione looked sick.

"I know where the rest are so getting a hold of and destroying them won't be too hard – except maybe the Gaunt Shack; that was the only one I wasn't there for."

Hermione held of her questions of where and when and asked Rose to continue.

"It's was a crap year, people died left and right, some people never returned from the Christmas holidays and I hooked up with Ginny. Because Dumbledore was out of the castle so much it went a lot further – we started developing a soul bond."

Hermione let go of Rose's hand and simply sat there, mouth agape, reeling at the implications.

"You-you know what that means don't you? You had too!" she sputtered through sudden tears. "Why have you been messing with me if you were just going to run off with her?"

Rose tried to hug her or at least grab her hand but realised quickly that it was the wrong thing to do as Hermione propelled herself backwards to the far end of the couch, eyes watering.

"Hermione," whispered Rose trying to hold back her own tears at how infernally tactless she had just been. "I wasn't leading you on; I could never be that cruel to you."

Hermione didn't say a thing; she just sat there, arms around her legs, giving Rose the most hurtful gaze imaginable – one of betrayal.

"Hermione," said Rose again, trying to inch her way towards Hermione.

"Don't!" she said in an anguished nerve cutting voice, causing Rose to recoil; she needed to think

"Hermione, do you feel jealousy for Ginny?" asked Rose cautiously as Hermione began to sob.

"Of course I do!" she shouted. "I feel betrayal, I feel broken, I-I-I feel…"

"You don't feel jealousy for Ginny," said Rose in an anguished voice, thinking how much her carelessness had just hurt her best friend.

"W-What?" sputtered Hermione through sobs and tear. "I-I don't…"

"Ginny isn't my only soulmate," she answered. "That - that is why you don't feel jealous for her."

Hermione's sobs abated slightly as she looked up from her knees, Rose reached out with her hand again with no reaction from Hermione. Taking it as her cue to start fixing things she scooted along the couch to Hermione and held her.

"I'm so sorry I did that, Rose," she said, dampening Rose's shirt for the second time that day. "I shouldn't have reacted like that."

"Shh," she whispered soothingly to Hermione as her own tears began to fall. "I should have been more careful; I messed up, I hurt you, I never want to do that to you again… ever."

Hermione's sobs slowly degraded to hiccups under Rose's care as Hermione felt comfortable uncurling herself from the ball she hand found herself in and returning the hug Rose had been giving her.

"I don't ever want to hear that again, Hermione," whispered Rose. "The hurt, the anguish – I couldn't bear to hear you like that again, to put you in such a position. It almost broke me."

Hermione simply buried her head into Rose's neck before hiccupping again. Rose, unsure what to do, simply kept hugging her until Hermione calmed down.

o0o0o0o

"Any more surprises?" asked Hermione weakly, giving Rose a small laugh despite her tear streaked face.

"There are more than three of us," said Rose, causing Hermione to cough and sputter.

"How many? Four?" she asked with amazement after recovering from her coughing fit.

"Yea," replied Rose. "Luna."

"I don't feel jealousy for Ginny – which you explained as being soulmates – but I did feel jealousy when you spoke of Luna though…"

"Have you ever met her? Like properly met her?" asked Rose.

"N-no, I don't think I have," answered Hermione carefully.

"Maybe it's because you've never gotten to know her so you just see her as any other girl to be jealous of – not another soulmate," suggested Rose. "I think you'll meet Luna soon though – assuming my plan goes well."

"Plan?"

"I've got the next year or so roughly planned," explained Rose. "Oh, and please – please – try not to insult her the moment you meet her. As I said, she's odd – an adorable type of odd – and she keeps people away by telling them of the strange creatures she supposedly believes in. Last time you became good friends once you stoped that though she never stopped telling you about those odd creatures – maybe she did it because it made you feel uncomfortable, like some strange Luna flirting."

Hermione just gave Rose an odd look at that before she continued.

"Where were we?" she asked, not mentioning their _disagreement_.

"You started to bond with Ginny."

"Yes, well, it only got that far because Dumbledore was out of the castle so often looking for the Horcruxes," said Rose. "When he found out we were bonding he rushed back to the castle and broke it before it fully formed – which could have killed both of us."

"He didn't."

"Apparently he did," stated Rose. "He was quite determined that I end up with Ron."

"But you didn't, did you?" she asked.

Rose couldn't look her in the eyes.

"I think by that time Dumbledore knew I wouldn't date someone 'proper', let alone Ron," answered Rose quietly. "They ended up dosing me with Amortentia. I-I did some pretty depraved things with him because of it."

"Oh, Rose," said Hermione, grabbing her in another hug. "It will be ok. It won't happen this time."

"Thanks Hermione," replied Rose. "Uh – continuing; just in case, apparently every girl in our year, the year bellow us and the year above us were dosed with apathy potion while Ginny and Luna got together. Ron found out, told Molly and then she demanded they be separated as part of the deal between her and Dumbledore."

"She sounds pretty old fashioned," suggested Hermione.

"Yea – she'll all 'women tend to the home, husbands work, have lots of children!' its kind've ironic though, she's kinda the pants in the relationship – I don't think I ever saw Mr Weasley tell someone to do something or order family members around."

"And then there's Ginny not being allowed to ride a broom with the boys," added Hermione. "But she does it anyway."

"I think it was Molly who did that," said Rose. "She always disapproved of me playing Quidditch. Still, moving on…"

"Yes, Moving on."

"Dosed to the gullet with love potions when Dumbledore finds a horcrux, we retrieve it and get back to the school to find it's being attacked from the inside by Deatheaters courtesy of Draco Malfoy and then Snape kills Dumbledore."

"Did the compulsions push him over the edge of something?"

"Nope, Dumbledore was dying, cursed retrieving an earlier horcrux. He arranged it so Snape would give him a quick Death while cementing himself in Voldemort's Inner-Circle – of course none of us knew that at the time so we took any chance we could to off him."

"Did you discover this before you – uh – _died_?" asked Hermione weakly.

"Yea – and we're getting to it," replied Rose. "After Dumbledore died everything went down the drain; the Ministry fell the day after by birthday and we went on the run, looking up and down the Isles looking for the Horcruxes. At one point we broke into both the Ministry and Gringotts and we eventually found ourselves at Hogwarts where the final horcrux – well, except for Nagini, the snake he carried with him. Everyone then turned up for a final stand – a lot of good people died and eventually I ran into Snape. Voldemort had just fatally wounded him and he was dying so he gave me some memories.

Rose sighed and collected her thoughts.

"They were of a conversation Snape had with Dumbledore – apparently Dumbledore thought I was a horcrux – my scar – and thus said I had to die."

Hermione gasped.

"You just let yourself die?" she almost shouted.

"Yea, I just walked into his wand," she replied with a bit of embarrassment. "Dumbledore was wrong – I wasn't a horcrux. I probably would have known that if I had told you before leaving."

"There is something up with your scar though, isn't there?"

o0o0o0o

"So I woke up in Limbo, discovered the manipulations, found out I had died sixteen times – and of those sixteen times, nearly all were because of Dumbledore in some way. For example, he poisoned me _twice_ we apathy potions and you once, my uncle killed me three times, Ron killed me three times – four if you count getting clubbed by that troll, while Voldemort only will me three times."

"That's always going to sound weird," commented Hermione. "How do you not die when you did?"

"Apparently time is rewound and they tweak something slightly; say something changes that gets us to the Hospital Wing in time or I'm standing a metre to the left so the ceiling doesn't crush me," said Rose. "Anyway; I was then told that because it's my last chance I would be able to get guidance from Death, keep my memories and go back to any point in time from when my destiny is set in stone."

'So you went back to the end of the year?" asked Hermione curiously. "Why not go back to before Hogwarts? Why now?"

"That's what I said," explained Rose with a smirk. "If I had gone back to before Hogwarts and killed Voldemort apparently Malfoy and his goons at the Ministry would have enacted a somewhat bloodless coup and taken over, succeeding where Voldemort failed – probably because Malfoy is a lot less insane than Voldemort. So basically we need Voldemort to be resurrected and then summon his Deatheaters, at which point we capture – or as Morta suggested – kill them."

"Don't you think she might be a little bit biased there, being Death and all?" suggested Hermione.

"Maybe, but her logic was sound," answered Rose uneasily. "These are people who have escaped the courts before – they might just do it again and we'll be back at square one."

Hermione didn't know how to respond as Rose grabbed her hand and gave it a squeeze.

"Don't worry, we have most of a year to decide," she said comfortingly.

* * *

**Sorry again.**

**Now it's over, I had initially intended for there to be more in this chapter - I won't say what because I'll get lots of angry messages about spoilers - but lets just say I thought I could cover everything here in half a chapter and was horribly, horribly wrong**

**I would like some feedback though on Rose and Hermione's first fight (or more correctly; Rose sticks her foot in her mouth). I have no idea if it's good/bad so any feedback on the matter is appreciated, I have no experience writing relationships.**

**As I'm still on a roll, expect a new chapter on New Years Day. I promise it will include Rose and Hermione doing things**

**Marriage contracts - I thought I should discuss them as I mentioned it in the chapter: **

**In my story, there are ****_arranged marriages_**** and there are ****_marriage contracts_****. Arranged marriages are legal because the Purebloods would never pass a law that removes their rights but practically nobody does them, the only thing that enforces them though is threat of disownment - the idea that someone else can magically enforce a contract for some reason with no out clauses or something really turns me off stories. I (guess) Andromeda for example was in one but instead chose to elope - so the only people that do them are the very dark families.**

**On the other hand are marriage contracts. In my story they are normal and expected in many marriages. They're basically something signed before the vows that list the expectations for both parties - like who has to work; husband, wife or both?, how many children are expected, who gets family titles etc, exceptions during a divorce - how property and money is divided, and conditions that lead to annulment etc. Basically my idea would be that the marriage contract Dumbledore would write (if he ever got the chance) would mean that Ron acts as her proxy for the Potter seat and that Ron has unlimited access to the potter fortune.**

**On that note, I think I'll had a new pet hate to my list on my profile.**

**Please review, favourite, follow, etc.  
**

**A/N 1:**

**"Demon Eyes KyoS: Great Chapter but you kind of cut away after chasing Bellatrix immediately to the sixth year without mentioning anything about her confrontation with Voldemort."**

**No shit, but didn't I make it clear I cut out tonnes of unnecessary text?**


	5. - A Plan Worthy of Slytherin

**Chapter is five is up!**

**Sorry about the wait - I know I said New years Day but I was rather ill after drinking a wee bit too much and needed to recover. I then sort've lost the roll I was on so this chapter sort've dragged out**

**Broke 10K views just before NYE - now at 12.5K views. Feels pretty good.**

* * *

**Last Chance, Miss Potter**

**Chapter Five:**

**A Plan Worthy of Slytherin**

"I think now is a good time to take a break," suggested Hermione as Rose finished her story.

"Why don't we go out?" suggested Rose. "It must be about lunch time. We could go on a date and then go shopping for clothes before getting back here and discuss the plan."

"A date you say?" said Hermione, perking up. "Where are you going to take me?"

"I – I actually have no idea," responded Rose with a small frown. "I've never really been to many restaurants."

"I know a few places local we could go to."

"I can apparate us anywhere in the UK, we don't have to do local…" suggested Rose, trailing off.

"You can apparate?" asked Hermione with surprise. "But you're underage!"

"Eh, so?" asked Rose with a small laugh. "I wasn't underage in the future – though I didn't have a licence. The only way they'll catch me is if I splinch myself, which I won't do with hundreds of apperations under my belt. I can take both of us anywhere."

"Hmm," hummed Hermione. "It does open up possibilities. Why don't we go to a nice café somewhere? Ugh, you need some new clothes if we want to go anywhere remotely nice though."

Rose felt a bit guilty at that.

"Alright, we'll just get takeaway and save our first date for another day," decided Hermione. "We're just getting lunch and then we'll go get a few clothes – as you said we don't have much time today and we need to plan."

Hermione looked like she was about to say something else before changing her mind and getting ready.

o0o0o0o

Hermione grabbed Rose's hand firmly as she felt Rose twist. Everything immediately went back as she felt like she was being compressed along a small tube before everything reappeared again. She staggered over, hands on her knees as she caught her breath on seaside air.

"I'm not sure I want to do that again," she gasped. "That was uncomfortable to the extreme."

Rose rubbed Hermione's back as she regained equilibrium before she eventually stood back up straight.

"If you don't want to do that again we have a lengthy trip back to your home," chuckled Rose.

"Where are we?"

"Wales," replied Rose. "We spent a night near this town last time. I remember walking past this kebab place and deciding to risk being seen in public to have some. I'd never had gyros before but you had."

"My parents are rather fond of varied takeaway," explained Hermione. "We have it occasionally though we prefer Thai or Indian."

"So, up for it?"

Hermione nodded as Rose took her hand and led her down the street, seeking gyros. After ordering receiving their meal they sought out the sea to find a place to eat.

"I think we need to tell my parents," said Hermione as they finished their meal in a seaside park.

"Uh – which bits?" asked Rose cautiously.

"What? No – not the dying and time travel – I mean – uh – us," explained Hermione nervously with a slight blush. "I need to tell them…"

"Come out to them?" finished Rose with a slight giggle at her awkwardness.

"Yea."

"If you want me there I will be."

Hermione smiled.

"Thanks, Rose," she said before licking a small bit of sauce off the corner of Rose's lips and finishing with a soft kiss.

"Garlicy," giggled Rose.

"So are you," she giggled back. "We both are so I guess I don't mind."

Their next stop for clothes was difficult as Rose explained she could only apparate to somewhere she knew. Hermione had to suggest several different places before she named one that Rose was familiar with.

With that Rose popped away from the seaside Welsh town to London with Hermione in tow.

o0o0o0o

"Still as uncomfortable as ever," said rose as she bent over, hands on her knees and caught her breath again.

"It never gets not-uncomfortable," commented Rose. "But you get used to it."

Catching her breath it became Hermione's turn to drag the other around as Hermione le Rose through the department store. They briefly paused at the lingerie before deciding they – unfortunately – didn't have time to pose for each other, forgoing it for another day when they had more time.

They left an hour later with several bulging bags and a pocket several hundred Pounds Sterling lighter.

o0o0o0o

"You want to tell them tonight?" asked Rose as they stashed Rose's bags of clothes near the front door as not to forget them on the way out.

"Uh – yea," she replied nervously. "If it's ok with you?"

"Worried they won't take it well?"

"Um – no, they're rather progressive – university educated and all," said Hermione without any certainty.

"You're worried you're wrong?" asked Rose, giving her a hug.

"Y-yes," she whispered. "I know they'll be ok with it but I'm still worried."

"I'll be beside you the whole time."

"Thanks," replied Hermione, her spirits slightly lifted. "So, plans?"

"Yes, plans," replied Rose. "How long do we have before your parents are home?"

"Probably a bit after six," replied Hermione. "They need to clean up the practice once they're done for the day."

"So, plans," started Rose. "Basically we let me be kidnapped and used in Voldemort's rebirthing ritual. This draws out the 'reformed' Deatheaters, enabling us to – uh – _deal_ with them and we kill Tom. Personally I'm not fond of the idea of killing him in a straight up duel so I'm open to other – more dirty – suggestions. This gives us just under a year to dispose of the Horcruxes and train."

"Dirty tactics?" asked Hermione.

"I dunno – maybe bury exploding potions in the ground beforehand like muggle landmines?" suggested Rose before pausing in thought then continuing. "Real muggle landmines?"

Hermione gave Rose a dubious smile.

"Anyway," continued Rose. "Basically right now I'm waiting for Sirius to reply to me and I think we should go meet Luna soon. Once Sirius get back to me we'll ask to use the Black London home to train – I would imagine the wards there would block the Trace or at least we'd be able to find some old wands to use. There's also the matter of the Horcrux there."

"What training are you thinking of?"

"Well, the Black library is quite vast, I'm sure we can find things we can learn – probably combat orientated magic for now, we'll be needing a crash course in it," replied Rose. "Oh, before I forget – we need to learn Occlumency to keep Dumbledore out of our head. If he finds out about the time travel or the extent of our knowledge he'd force feed us Veritaserum to drain every drop of knowledge we possess before obliviating us to Hell and back."

"Is it hard to learn?" asked Hermione.

Rose paused awkwardly for a second before speaking.

"I was supposed to learn it last time," she answered. "But I sucked at it. I'm hoping it was because Snape wasn't teaching me properly because of his grudge but I really don't know."

"Hmm," hummed Hermione. "Maybe we should get started on it now; what the name of the book you used?"

"Uhh…" was all Rose got out as she tried to think of an excuse for not bothering to read a book on the topic.

"You didn't read up on it, did you?" asked Hermione exasperatedly.

"No – No I did not," replied Rose uneasily. "It might have helped to read up on the topic. In hindsight it did seem very odd that the only instructions I got were 'Clear your mind, Potter!'"

"So we need to find suitable books on the topic," said Hermione. "I think we need to write a list."

With that, Hermione quickly made her way out of the room before returning with a notebook and pen.

"No quill and parchment?" asked Rose.

"A Bic and a notepad are much cheaper – I only use a quill and parchment because that's what's expected at school."

"Uh-huh," said Rose. "Moving on – to sum it up; secure Grimmauld Place, contact Ginny and Luna, collect the Horcruxes, learn loads, do what needs to be done to bond, free Sirius, keep training once we're back at school, let Voldemort's plot continue and plan some dirty underhanded trick to off him."

Hermione's hands sped across the notepad as she jotted all of that down before motioning to continue.

"So we'll use Grimmauld Place to train, hopefully Sirius will get his trial with the public pressure mounting and we need to speak to Luna first – I think she's our best chance to get Ginny away from her mother."

"Ginny and Luna are good friends, aren't they?" asked Hermione.

"Yea."

"Ask Luna to invite Ginny on a 'camping trip' or something, something that means she'll be away for a long period of time with no chance to visit," suggested Hermione. "Say they're going overseas."

"Luna is well known for her yearly trips to find new animals," mused Rose. "I don't think they're actually going on a holiday this year though as I remember something about them going to the World Cup – but still it would work. I need an excuse not to go to the Weasley's this year though, or at least delay it – I would still like to see the World Cup and I'd like to get a crack at capturing a few Deatheaters before the resurrection – the less at the resurrection the better."

"You could tell them you're staying with me for most of this summer?" suggested Hermione to Rose's frown.

"I'm concerned that Dumbledore will feel the need to check up on us and make sure the compulsions are still holding – maybe even give us another dose of apathy potion – based on our previous history…"

Hermione paused and mused for a few seconds before continuing.

"You can't ask to stay at the Dursley's?"

"If his purpose for me being at the Dursleys is control – to see him as my saviour – then he would be very suspicious if I didn't jump at the first chance I had to leave," said Rose. "I think we'll get back to that."

"Moving on then," said Hermione. "So we'll train hard until the final week of the holiday and then go to the Burrow and watch the Quidditch?"

"Sounds about right," replied Rose. "I – uh – don't really know what's involved in completing the bond. Morta said we'd need close contact for the first few days – the more the quicker it will be – but I don't know the 'signs' or anything that a bond is starting. Have you read about it?"

"I don't know much about it actually," replied Hermione to Rose's mock shock. "Yes there are books in the library I haven't read. All I know is they exist, are legally considered marriage unless the bondmates don't want it to be – apparent there have been a few platonic bonds – and they only happen between 'destined' couples and apparently quartets…"

Rose gave Hermione a cheacky smile at that.

"It should be fun," she said to Hermione's blush. "Should probably research the children aspect of it though at some point."

"Ch-children?" asked Hermione with a little bit of shock.

"Oh – I forgot to mention that, didn't I?" asked Rose before continuing. "Yea, according to Morta the four of us will be having a few kids if this all works out. When I asked how she said that there was some potion based solution to it."

"Uh-huh," replied Hermione in a slight daze. "I wasn't really expecting that – I was thinking donors or something."

"Something to research, Hermione," said Rose as Hermione jotted it down on the list.

"Now, the Horcruxes," stated Rose uneasily. "Two are very easy to get – one's in Grimmauld Place and the other is at Hogwarts, one will probably require us to hire some curse breakers – that being the one in the Gaunt Shack, and another will be awfully difficult as it in a Gringotts Vault."

"How did you get it last time?" asked Hermione curiously.

"Uh – we broke in," replied Rose, doing her best to say it unabashedly.

"Broke in?" repeated Hermione in shock.

"Yea, it wasn't the best idea, but we couldn't think of any other way."

"Let's ask Sirius," said Hermione as she bit her lip. "He might have a few ideas."

"Oh," said Rose suddenly. "There is also the snake but we can do that one when we get Tom."

Hermione jotted that down too before Rose broke the silence again.

"Oh, and my scar – which is like a pseudo-Horcrux that can be removed by a decent healer."

Hermione gave Rose a dubious look at that before jotting that as well.

o0o0o0o

"So things to research," said Hermione. "Occlumency, Legilimency – at the very least it will help us with Occlumency if we know how Legilimency works, soul bonds, 'combat' curses, healing, horcruxes, and find a way to kill V-Voldmort without too much risk to you."

"I really don't have many ideas on that last one right now," commented Rose.

"Now that article's out, what are you going to do?" asked Hermione. "I think you need to be proactive."

"Hmm," hummed Rose. "I was thinking of writing Madam Bones a letter asking for a meeting. Do you think we've given everyone enough time before arranging such a thing?"

"You could probably write it now; we've still got time until my parents are home and we're out of stuff to plan now."

"Probably right," she replied. "Got a quill and parchment I can use? I don't know what she expects letters to be written on but it best to be safe."

Hermione retrieved some parchment and a quill from her room and gave it to Rose to use. Ten minutes later she finished after a few revisions and handed it to Hermione to proof.

_Madam Bones,_

_Presumably you have seen the article on the front page of the Prophet this morning detailing the will of my parents. Until this morning I was unaware that they even had a will. _

_I had previously presumed that my placement with my mother's sister came about because my parents failed to write a will, leading to me being placed with my closest living family member, something I believe would not have happened if they had a will. I am certain my mother knew how unpleasant an individual my mother's sister is and I believe she would not have deliberately placed me in such an environment._

_The article in the Prophet this morning shed some light on the matter. I wish to arrange a meeting with you to discuss unsealing my parents will, and as one of the people listed in it as potential guardians and as a member of the Wizengamot I thought that you would be the best person to approach first._

_Thank you for your time,_

_Rose Potter_

_PS – If you choose not to send your reply with Dobby, please reply using the name 'Rose Evans'_

"Look good?" asked Rose.

"Well," replied Hermione carefully. "It's not how I'd write such a letter but it fits you."

"Uh huh – Dobby?" asked Rose to no one in particular ask Dobby popped in.

"Missy Rosie!" he said, doing his usual bounce. "What can Dobby bes doing for yous right now?"

"Can you please take this letter to Madam Bones at the DMLE for me?"

Dobby took the letter without a word and popped away.

"You said you were paying him? He's not a slave?" asked Hermione.

"I am," replied Rose. "I'm also paying him in magic."

"You're paying him in magic?" she asked. "What do you mean?"

"Elves get most of their magic from their masters," explained Rose. "If there not bonded then they have barely enough magic to live. Bonded to me he can pop around all the time and use his magic to do housework and such."

Hermione looked in deep though at that information before Rose continued.

"Add it to the list of things to research?"

o0o0o0o

The pair spent the next few hours evenly distributed between talking and snogging before Hermione suddenly asked.

"How are we going to meet up with Luna?"

"Uhh…" replied Rose intelligently as she tried to think of something. "I was thinking of just rocking up and knocking on her door but that might seem a bit rude."

Hermione rolled her eyes affectionately at Rose's thoughtlessness.

"Well seeing as right now she doesn't know you why don't you ask Ginny?" suggested Hermione to Rose's uneasiness. "Hear me out – how suspicious is it if you invite Ginny to a girls day out – like you said to me in your letter – and suggest she bring Luna along?"

"I think I'm being paranoid but every time I think of a plan for Ginny I get really worried about Molly catching on," replied Rose. "I think back to all the years I've known her and I've noticed all of her little quirks showing what's behind her mask. I'm just worried that if we ask for some time alone to talk that she might get suspicious. For all I know Dumbledore has told her about us and to keep an eye on us when we're at the Burrow, she might follow us and get suspicious."

"So you want to speak to Luna first, someone who currently has no connection to us?"

"Well, yea," she responded. "Knowing Luna last time around, she probably won't mind at all and will probably understand why before we even explain it. That girl is surprisingly intuitive."

"Really?" asked Hermione with a small amount of scepticism.

"Really," replied Rose. "Luna truly is a weird one – an adorable weird one."

"Alright, Luna first then."

o0o0o0o

Hermione jumped up from Rose's lap at the sound of someone pulling into the driveway. She peered out the window to confirm the arrival of her parents as she realised she hadn't plan anything and had no idea how to approach this.

"Nervous?" asked Rose.

"Yes," she replied. "I didn't plan this or anything! I have no idea how to bring it up – do I just come out and say it?"

"Just tell them you need to talk."

Hermione gave Rose a weak smile as she braced herself for the encounter.

"Hello how was your day, Hermione?" asked Mrs Granger distractedly before noticing Rose.

"Hi mum, this is my best friend Rose Potter," replied Hermione nervously. "Can we please talk to you and dad?"

Hermione's mother paled ever-so slightly.

"Uh – yes," she answered. "Let me just put my bag away and get your father."

Hermione's mother shuffled out and returned half a minute later with her husband in tow.

"Rose Potter," said Rose as she got up off the sofa and offered her hand to Hermione father.

"Dan Granger," he replied, shacking Rose's hand stiffly before she returned to her seat.

As her parents took seats opposite Hermione attempted to build up the nerve to speak.

"So what did you want to talk to us about, Hermione?" asked Dan Granger with a scrutinizing gaze.

Rose took Hermione's hand in the most discreet manner she could – which wasn't very discreet – and gave her hand a comforting squeeze.

"Well – uh – I'm," she sputtered out even more nervously. "I'm gay."

Both of Hermione's parents visibly relaxed at this and sighed in relief to Hermione and Rose's confusion.

"I don't think we were expecting that response," said Rose quietly as she continued to watch Dan and Jean with confusion.

Hearing that, both parents had the shame to look a bit embarrassed as they glanced sideways at each other.

"Sorry dear," apologised Jean. "We're happy for you if you're happy; we were just a bit worried what you said you needed to talk with us."

"Well – uh – we're just worried hearing some dreaded words; our daughter goes off to a boarding school for nine months of the year," explained Dan, continuing from where his wife left off. "And we're just worried you'll come home and tell us you're pregnant – or something."

"They're the dreaded words when your daughter tells you very nervously that she needs to talk," said Jean.

Hermione blushed a deep red at that as Rose snickered quietly, earning a punch on the shoulder from Hermione for it.

"I'm sorry if we worried you, Hermione," said Dan. "This won't change anything about you in our eyes."

Hermione smiled weakly at that as Rose gave her a hug.

"So what about you, Rose?" asked Jean curiously. "Thinking about it, from the focus of Hermione's letters…"

"We're giving dating a shot," replied Rose with a slight blush as she took Hermione's hand again.

"I always imagined I'd be giving the scare talk to Hermione's boyfriend," commented Dan. "I take it's off the table then?"

"Yes, it's just girls," replied Hermione, speaking for the first time since she had come out. "Not going to be seeing a boyfriend I think."

"I know being gay in – uh – _our_ world is sometimes difficult but what about in the magical world?" asked Jean cautiously.

Hermione and Rose gave each other a quick glance before Hermione spoke.

"It's difficult to say," replied Hermione, gaining some confidence back as she went into lecture mode. "The Ministry is dominated by the aristocracy to some degree – "

"Pureblood snobs," muttered Rose.

" – but they don't represent the wider community very well," she continued, ignoring Rose's comment. "Much of magical society might not care – except for the fact as to who Rose is."

Rose grimaced slightly at a mention of her unwanted fame.

"Unfortunately being who I am means a lot of people may object to us," said Rose. "I'm famous and I'm technically apart of the aristocracy – as I'll take the title of Lady Potter on my majority and become head of the Ancient and Most Nobel House of Potter."

"I'm not sure about marriage," said Hermione.

"Add it to the list of things to research, dear," replied Rose smiling. "Still – you haven't seen a magical wedding, have you? In the muggle world marriage is dictated by the law but in the magical world marriage is a magical ceremony that binds people together – something that can't be controlled by the law."

"They might just make it illegal to perform bindings between same sex couples then," suggested Hermione. "Tell everyone that if you do it you'll get time in Azkaban and they'll stop."

"True," replied Rose. "But I think some people see the 'right of magic' or something as sacred and won't dare make something magic 'allows' illegal."

"Why don't you look it up?" suggested Dan wearily.

Hermione and Rose agreed as they continued talking.

"At this rate it would be better to be straight," commented Jean before realising her mistake. "I don't mean it like that – I'm just saying, being straight would be much easier as you wouldn't have to fight for your rights or anything. Not that you could change anyway."

Hermione opened her mouth to say something at that before closing it again and thinking.

"Yea, I don't think I could change it," said Hermione. "And I wouldn't want to anyway."

"Perks of dating your best friend," butted in Rose with a small laugh.

o0o0o0o

"Are you staying for dinner, Rose?" asked Dan. "You're welcome to join us."

"Thanks, but I can't," replied Rose with a small smile. "I have to get back home soon."

Rose made her way out the front door after thanking the grangers and saying a good bye to them before finding Hermione had followed her out to give her a more personal goodbye.

"When will I see you next?" asked Hermione.

"Soon I hope," replied Rose. "You can tag along with me to see Sirius if you want, or we could go on a date sooner."

"A date I think," replied Hermione. "Any idea how long it is until you can see him?"

"I said I would meet him in the Forest of Dead two days after the date of his letter," replied Rose.

"Forest of Dean?" asked Hermione curiously. "I've been there before."

"I know; you took us there when we were on the run last time. I thought it would be a good a spot as any to meet him – it is rather remote and I know the area."

"As much as the area is nice I would prefer a date, Ms Potter," commented Hermione cheekily.

"That you will get, Ms Granger," replied Rose. "It will be a surprise though."

With another quick kiss, Rose made her way down the street – to return a minute later to collect her shopping.

"Sorry, forgot," she said as she gave Hermione (another) goodbye kiss.

"You did that deliberately," said Hermione with a good natured roll of her eyes.

Rose didn't reply, opting to simply give her a smile before trotting off down the street again to a safe apparition distance.

"How long have you been dating?" asked Jean as she watched Rose walk off down the street. "You said you were 'giving it a go' but that didn't seem like a kiss between two people who just started dating."

"We haven't been dating for long, mum," said Hermione as she thought of a quick excuse. "We've just been crushing on each other for a long time. We just have a lot of pent up emotion and been wanting this for a long time."

"So I shouldn't leave you two unsupervised?" she asked with a raise of a solitary eyebrow which Hermione responded to by blushing slightly.

"It's not like we can knock each other up," muttered Hermione very quietly as she pinched the bridge of her nose.

"I heard that," replied Jean – evidently Hermione hadn't muttered as quietly as she thought.

"Not accidentally anyway," shot back Hermione deliberately loudly as she collected the notes she had made causing her mother to sputter.

"Uh – what?" asked Jean with slight confusion. "What did you mean by that?"

"Apparently there exists a potion that enables you to conceive with another woman," explained Hermione, smirking as she got her uncomfortable revenge. "Something Rose and I were discussing for the future."

"I hope it's not too soon in the future."

"Not before we finish school I would think."

o0o0o0o

"Dobby?" asked Rose after she had dodged her relatives and made it to the sanctuary of her grimy room.

"What can Dobby bes doing for Mistress?" he asked after popping in.

"Can you get me some dinner?" she asked as he popped away again.

Rose lay down on her bed and tried to relax despite the feeling she had missed something. It took a few minutes before something occurred to her.

"Why don't we just ask the goblins?" she muttered aloud. "There must be rules about what can go in vaults."

With that, Rose dug out some parchment and a quill and began a letter.

_Account Manager Goldfist,_

_I wish to speak to you about the storage of certain objects in Gringott's vaults. Specifically I require a definitive list of objects that are prohibited by Gringotts. I understand if I cannot have such a list posted to me so if required I am available at you leisure to discuss this matter in person._

_Thank you,_

_Rose Potter._

Rose then sealed the letter as Dobby reappeared without command carrying several plates.

'Was your timing a coincidence?" asked Rose.

"No Missy Rosie!" he replied. "I's be waiting for you to finish what you were doing before disturbing you."

"Thanks Dobby," she replied. "Can you take this letter to Account Manager Goldfist?"

Dobby soundlessly took the letter and popped away before she could finish.

"Dobby?" she called as he popped back into the room looking slightly worried. "I wasn't finished – "

"Dobby is very sorry, Mistress!" he said nervously.

"No need to be worried, Dobby," replied Rose, dismissing his fears. "Just need you to do something else for me; can you check my post-box at Gringotts under the name Rose Evans? Actually – can you do that every night around dinner?"

Dobby nodded in relief and disapperated away, giving Rose a chance to eat her dinner.

Over dinner she continued to feel something was not right and that she was still missing something important. It wasn't until dobby returned with some mail did she realise.

_Ms Potter,_

_You should not assume what has been written by Rita Skeeter is correct. She is well known for fabricating her stories and it is quite possible that the will shown in this morning's Daily Prophet is a fabrication. _

_However, I can understand that you would like to see your parent's actual will. The article was truthful when it said that the will was sealed by the Wizengamot in 1981. I am happy to discuss this over lunch someday if you wish and we may be able to present your request for an unsealing before the Wizengamot._

_Please respond with a suitable date._

_Sincerely_

_Amelia Bones_

Rose smirked as she read the letter, wondering how Madam Bones would react when she finds out the will is very accurate. She scribbled a response on a small piece of parchment but delayed handing it to Dobby until she had read the other parchment.

_Ms Potter,_

_We here at the Gringotts Warding Department have completed our survey of the wards placed in the vicinity of Number Four Privet Drive in Little Winging, Surrey._

_We have determined:_

_Firstly; that the wards in question are without-a-doubt blood-bound wards powered by your own magical core and are operating in a manner that could potentially be hazardous to your health._

_Secondly; that the wards are poorly designed containing many design flaws that severely limit their effectiveness._

_Thirdly; that these wards were placed illegally and without appropriate authorization – neither from the owners of Number Four Privet Drive or from the Ministry of Magic._

_Fourthly; that the modification you propose can be undertaken._

_The modifications proposed would require you to not be inside the wards at the time of modification for your safety as they may malfunction and potentially harm you. We will also require a small amount of blood to bind the notification wards to you person._

_We also propose another modification; for your safety we recommend that the blood-bound component of the wards be disabled and that the wards be modified to be powered solely by ambient magic. This modification will be difficult to detect should the ward-builder inspect his/her wards, this will further be compounded by the ward-builder's apparent lack of ability in the subject._

_Projected cost for the modifications is approximately 275G and we will require 50% up front. The price reflected is high as they must be modified discreetly._

_Please respond swiftly so we can carry out these modifications as soon as possible._

_Sincerely,_

_Ward Master Steelwall._

Happy with the proposals made, Rose wrote a quick letter telling Master Steelwall to proceed and to simply inform her on the day, she then told Dobby to take her note to madam Bones asking if tomorrow is suitable for lunch.

With no third letter, Rose realised her mistake. She rectified this with another letter.

_Healer Claude,_

_Can you please recommend a healer well versed with injuries to the soul? Discretion and professionalism is required._

_Thank you,_

_Rose Potter._

Rose put her letter on the desk waiting for Dobby's return and lay down on top of her bed. Dobby made his appearance several minutes later with a response from Madam Bones agreeing to lunch the next day and went to bed, dreaming of a bushy haired girl.

o0o0o0o

Rose woke later than usual the next morning with nothing pressing going on. After asking Dobby to fetch her some breakfast she started digging through her trunk, deciding that while she couldn't enjoy Hermione, Luna or Ginny's company she should get her summer homework over with, leaving more time together when they were all in one place. She quickly found the work to be very easy for a person who had six – rather than three – years of magical education under their belts. She chose to get them all over and done with but very quickly found that after her first assignment she was very bored. Rose then decided she'd do one each day to get them out the way, spacing them out enough to not shrivel up and die of boredom.

After finishing one of seven essays Rose got up and decided to ask Dobby to check the mailbox early today, hoping Healer Claude had responded. Dobby returned several minutes later with the response in hand and found the name of the recommended Healer who had experience in soul magic.

_Healer Brunswick,_

_You have been recommended to me by Healer Janice Claude as someone who would be suitable for a job I require having done. Can we please arrange a suitable time to meet up and discuss this matter further?_

_Thank you,_

_Rose Potter_

_PS – please respond with the address 'Rose Evans.'_

Once Rose had sealed the letter, Dobby appeared without word and took it to presumably Healer Brunswick. Rose then checked her watch and saw she was still too early to meet with madam Bone yet. Deciding she would like to have a working watch once she was at the bottom of the Black Lake in February next year she decided to purchase one before lunch.

Rose walked into the Leaky Cauldron an hour later with a new professional diving watch on her wrist that she was assured would survive nearly any water based adventure she found herself and vowed to add a few charms of her own to it to improve survivability.

Rose quickly found Madam Bones in a quiet corner of the tavern and ordered her lunch before making her way over and sitting down.

"Rose Potter," said Rose as she held out her hand.

"Amelia Bones," she replied giving Rose's hand a firm shake. "So you're interested in seeing your parent's will?"

"Yes," replied Rose. "But Dumbledore will stall it at every turn, Madam Bones."

Madam Bone narrowed her eyes slightly and scrutinized Rose at her comment.

"Outside of court it's Amelia, and why do you think that?" she asked.

"Because I gave Rita Skeeter that copy of my parents will," replied Rose to Amelia's shock. "Gringotts had a copy."

"So I was…"

"On the guardianship list?" asked Rose to which Amelia nodded. "Yes."

"So what, Dumbledore asked the Wizengamot to seal it so he could gain guardianship of you?" asked Amelia curiously.

"Partially," replied Rose. "I may sound a bit paranoid but I think he deliberately put me in an _unpleasant_ environment so once I got into the magical world I would see him as my saviour, thus enabling him to manipulate me. Have you heard the interesting things that have happened at Hogwarts in the time I've been there?"

Amelia once again scrutinised Rose before choosing her words carefully.

"I have heard a few disturbing rumours but Dumbledore assured us they were just that…" she said as she trailed off. "That year's Defence teacher killed trying to steal something from the headmaster, an animal that had been attacking students before being killed and rumours that the Azkaban guards assigned to control the dementors losing control of them at one point."

"Technically true but missing a whole heap of very critical information," said Rose. "For some reason each year I've been at Hogwarts I've found myself the only person who could solve these problems – problems that were much worse than you described. I'm convinced that Dumbledore manipulates people so I end up in the middle of it."

"Let's hear them then," requested Amelia.

"First year – the object in question wasn't something belonging to the headmaster, it was the legendary Philosophers Stone – apparently, I'm not convinced the Flamel's actually lent it to Dumbledore – but that doesn't matter, what does matter is the stone was protected by 'traps' – and I'll use the term very loosely – that could be overcome by three first year students. I find myself at the end of this obstacle course of slight terror to find myself facing Quirrel who turns out is being possessed and the person possessing him is trying to use the stone to regain a physical body. Dumbledore then comes in at the nick of time after I kill Quirrel – not intentionally mind you but he was trying to kill me."

"A student killed a staff member?" asked Amelia incredibly.

"Yep."

"Who was it possessing Quirrel?" asked Amelia.

"You're not going to believe if but it was the wraith of Voldemort."

Amelia gave shuddering gasp at the word 'Voldemort' before continuing.

"You better have something to back up what you just said."

"I'll happily give you a memory once we're done," she replied. "Continuing, my second year – the animal in question was a fucking _basilisk_ – and not just a small one either – this thing was fucking huge and we're lucky it didn't wipe out everyone at dinnertime or something. I assume you'll want the memories of this?"

Amelia nodded with quite the expression of concern.

"Somehow after over six months of sporadic attacks not one of the teachers – or Dumbledore for that matter – could figure out it was a basilisk. No, my second year best friends does it and I find myself in the legendary Chamber of Secrets having to kill a basilisk that I only survived through a mixture of sheer luck and stupidity. I then find the young first year who opened the Chamber was being possessed – by Voldemort – again."

"The – " said Amelia before being cut off.

"The memories of the event, I'll give you them once I've finished," said Rose. "My third year – did you heard anything about Sirius Black being found inside the castle?"

"No – except for just before the dementors were recalled when apparently Fudge sighted him on school grounds and called for some dementors to be brought up – I was told it was a false alarm."

Rose simply shook her head at this and continued.

"He was seen three times on school grounds during the year. Fist he had tried to get through the portrait of the Fat Lady and get into the Griffindor common room on Halloween, then a few months later he actually got into the common room and ended up in the third year boy's dormitories."

"We should have heard of this," said Amelia with some anger. "I would have deployed my Aurors to scour the castle from top to bottom. Instead Dumbledore covers it up!"

"Yes, well – third time I come face to face with Sirius Black himself – the night the dementors are recalled to Azkaban. Sirius had grabbed Ron Weasley and I had followed after him. I got to the shrieking shack where they were hold up and found that he wasn't after me – no – he wanted Ron's pet rat Scabbers. Professor Lupin then turns up after seeing all this and Sirius explains that Peter Pettigrew is actually an unregistered animagus and that he was my parent's secret keeper – not Sirius. So lo-behold they use the forced animagus reversal spell on Ron's rat and it turns into Pettigrew."

* * *

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**A quick explanation for house titles:**

**Houses gain the title of 'Ancient' after existing for a certain amount of time (I'm thinking 500 years at this point) and gain the title of 'Most Ancient' after another set period of time (1000 years?). The title of 'Noble' is bestowed after 'great deeds' by [someone] in the Ministry and 'Most Noble' comes from greater deeds. I'm thinking that Orders of Merlin also get your house that title. Title of Ancient and Most Ancient can't be revoked but Noble titles can. If you're rich enough you can gain the title of noble by spreading your gold around (i.e. bribing). Houses are created by going into Gringotts and starting a family bank account. Houses with titles may vote on the Wizengamot. The Weasley Family is 'Ancient' but because they're bankrupt they can't vote on the Wizengamot - same goes for the Gaunt Family**

**Hope that helps.**

**The 'being straight is better' comment is sorta quoted from my own mum. When I got the talk she mentioned it was ok to be gay but then said pretty much that 'I'd prefer if you were straight because it's easier to be straight'**

**Do lesbians refer to themselves as lesbian or gay? Personally I chose gay because it rolls of the tough better - eh doesn't matter that much.**

**A/N 1 - Via PM: "How do you get a Miss Potter that is suppose to be Harry's daughter if Harry is female? Miss Potter would actually be known as the last name of the father of the child unless Miss Potter is both parents? Was Harry a female originally or did Miss Potter go back in time and change Harry's sex? Just curious."**

Lol, wut?


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